Metal Gear Azur: The Diamond Union (On Pause)
by llAnzull
Summary: Venom Snake had done it. He had created an army of soldiers without borders and had managed to achieve world peace through nuclear disarmament. Before Outer Heaven is completed, he is abruptly tossed into a VERY different world. On this new Earth where girls who replace vehicles were at war with each other, Venom must rebuild Diamond Dogs - in a world where he's his own man.
1. Prologue: Mother Base's Catastrophe

**This story is a collaboration between me and a good friend of mine, _NO. MCCXXII_. We will be writing this story together from start to finish.**

Important Details:

This story takes place after the cutscene in Metal Gear Solid V where all nukes are disarmed. The interdimensional rift from Survive is moved down the timeline to take place after that, with the entire Mother Base ending up in the rift.

On the Azur Lane side, this takes place in the mobile game timeline, shortly before the intro battle from the mobile game. There are no guarantees that we will include all the shipgirls, but we will make an attempt to have at least most of them have their five minutes of fame.

Without further ado, here is probably one of my most favorite ideas so far... Metal Gear Solid: The Azure War.

just like in Dragondimension, an optional soundtrack is here via a YouTube playlist: playlist?list=PLfUttKNcUeSbjeMmG9z98WlI5VDId3X0P

...

* * *

_**-Prologue: Mother Base's Catastrophe-**_

🎵 Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops - Mother Base theme 🎵

_-Venom Snake's PoV-_

'**Military Without Borders'**

This was the motto of Mother Base... that is, the Mother Base that belonged to _Militaires Sans Frontières_. They were the predecessor to the Diamond Dogs, who Venom Snake had founded himself. The motto was true for both of the Mother Base's - both had built up an enormous army of people who contracted themselves to the highest bidder. But that didn't mean that either weren't capable of doing the right thing.

In both cases, they had each fought giant robots that threatened the world. _Metal Gear ZEKE_ had threatened MSF's Mother Base, and it was thwarted by Big Boss; The very same man who Venom Snake had found out was the man that he was based on.

But then ZEKE was outdone a decade later. Owned and built by Cipher... was _Sahelanthropus. _They had somehow managed to build him in such a way, that he could proficiently wield a giant sword as if he was as light as a feather. And he could disrupt the very ground by merely slamming the sword onto the ground like a hammer. But even that robotic monolith of a world-crippling threat was stopped by the one and only Diamond Dogs.

But that's where the similarities stopped.

Only just a few days ago, the brave soldiers of Mother Base 2.0 had managed to do the unthinkable, and seemingly unaccomplishable.

**They had achieved Nuclear Disarmament. **

On that day, he gathered every single one of the Mother Base soldiers, where Miller gave a speech that he personally thought was inspirational. The soldiers cheered, for they had truly done the impossible. And at the same time, Venom Snake had begun to feel like his own man, instead of just a doppelganger of Big Boss.

Fast forward to the present day. Venom Snake was going to be personally inspecting Mother Base, intending to see if it was rigid and versatile enough to continue service. He had gotten up sharp at 16:30 hours. 5 minutes later, he was brushing his teeth and taking a 10-minute shower, just like every day.

At 17:00 hours, he had some of his soldiers at a lesson on CQC. While watching a few of his soldiers sparring yesterday, he had noticed that their movements were sloppy. They weren't putting in enough effort as required by the advanced melee combat techniques. Several times throughout his time as the leader of Mother Base, he gave personal lessons to his men upon seeing their sloppy coordination - and every single one of those times, he saw those same men he trained go on to become esteemed soldiers within the ranks.

Some of the other soldiers got jealous about this, and singled out those men. At first, Snake ignored it. That is, until an incident occured the third time.

Snake was approached by Miller, who seemed rather crossed with the situation.

-3 Weeks Ago-

"Boss!"

Miller opened the door to Snake's personal quarters, a sense of urgentness in his voice. Snake, reading a battle report from the Intel Division, he looked up from the thick stack of paper.

"What is it, Kaz?"

Miller limped over to Snake, his crutch making loud, clunky noises.

"You know what I saw when I was exiting the shitter?"

Snake looked up at him, his face remained unchanged. "What?"

"I saw three of our men ganging up on a single guy!" Miller yelled. Snake immediately stood up from his bed.

"What? Who was it?"

"I got their tags - the three guys were Richard, Marcus and Hudson. I had them moved to the brig for questioning and disciplinary action."

"Good." Snake replied with his gruff voice. "I might swing by their cells later... teach 'em a lesson on what it means to hurt their own."

Miller nodded, content with Snake's answer, He walked out of the room soon after, the sounds of his crutch loudly echoing in the hallway.

"***Sigh***..."

Snake grabbed the report and putted it into a folder labeled "Urgent". He would have to read it later; these three needed his attention more.

-Present Day-

Venom Snake's boots echoing through the hallway was a signature sound among those in Diamond Dogs. It's heavy and intimidating sound lets the men know that a man that means business was walking towards them. Several men bowed their heads, saying 'Boss!' as he passed by them.

He walked with a purpose down the steps, heading towards a nearby Jeep. Every Jeep on the base did not use a key - they all used a push start system. Snake knew that it was the R&D Team's doing, considering that they frequently came up with _brilliant _things.

Snake drove down the narrow, steel pathways that connected each of the platforms together. There was never any traffic, foot or motor. His vehicle's suspension hopped up and down as the vehicle rhythmically passes over the various bumps on the platform.

Suddenly, the base's alarms all went off at once. A voice soon followed on the intercom.

🎵 Metal Gear Solid V: FOB Combat Theme🎵

"All hands on deck, this is CP! A massive tsunami is incoming!"

Snake immediately slammed on the brakes, the tires skidding on the pathway and leaving black tire marks on it. He looked around, trying to look for the direction of the wave.

"The wave is reported to be coming from the Northeast! Everyone on the Combat Platform and the Base Development Platform are to evacuate the platforms immediately! Doctors on the Medical Platform are advised to take any paraplegic and unconscious patients to any available Jeep, and head to the **Command Platform**."

Snake immediately turned backwards. He had just come from the Combat Platform and taken a Jeep, so he decided to turn back around and pick up some men who were fast enough to reach him. As he was approaching the Combat Platform, the air raid siren also started to blare.

"All hands, this is CP! Weather sensors indicate a massive surge in static electricity in the air... Fuck, everyone in cars needs to gun it straight to the command platform! And to those transporting injured, take cover!"

Right as he was saying that, the clouds in the sky began to swirl around each other. Ominous bolts of lightning were cast around rods placed on the top of each building. Snake looked on in pure confusion; what the hell was going on and _why?_

Abruptly, all of them started to move up from the rods. They gradually moved towards one another, eventually centering onto a point in the sky. The epicenter of it flashed so bright, that it felt like a bunch of flashbang grenades were going off fast enough to completely blind everyone from watching.

Snake had to avert his eyes. He was especially vulnerable, as he was currently wearing his Solid Eye. it wasn't set to NV mode, but Snake had a feeling that exposing it to rapidly flashing light was a surefire way to kill the thing in a matter of milliseconds.

He quickly exited the vehicle, taking cover on the back of it. Grabbing his iDroid from his pocket, he brought up the weather screen.

Static electricity percentage in air was at 80%, and wind speeds at 160MPH... was there gonna be some sort of electric tornado that will end Mother Base as he knew it? The Jeep was struggling to stay parked, so Snake quickly made an attempt to run into the Combat Platform's main building. He was nearly blown straight onto his face, but he just _barely_ managed to make it.

Soon after, he heard a loud crash soon after he entered the building. He assumed that the Jeep's parking brake had finally given up, and careened straight towards the wall.

And then the power cut out. Red lights shortly flickered on after. When they turned on, it was followed by a sound that unnerved snake.

**The nuclear siren.**

Snake took a wild guess that the people in the security rooms had just lost their collective minds, and decided to make the situation even worse. Once again, the intercom blared to life, this time in a somewhat more muffled quality.

"_ALL HANDS!_ A blue rift has appeared above the Command Platform!"

A rift!? Snake looked out the window. As much as he didn't want to believe it... the officer was right. Hovering directly over the Command Platform was a sky blue rift, seemingly sustained by the lightning bolts - which helped the rift grow even bigger. It's size quickly grew to be large enough to span over the entirety of Mother Base.

"...Men. It was brave serving with you all."

The officer manning the intercom's voice was somber as he said that. Snake was no stranger to the feeling of uncertainty. But in this moment, when the weather was defying all possible logic...

...he hoped that he could make it out alive at the end of this.

As Snake was putting his iDroid back into his pocket, the gravity suddenly seemed to shift towards the rift. The Command Platform was brought through the rift, Snake looking in awe as it happened. One by one, the connecting platforms were swallowed up by it, and it gradually moved outwards towards the dedicated platforms.

The last thing Snake saw before he fell unconscious was a bright blue light falling in front of him.

* * *

**The Prologue ends here. I have high hopes and ambitions for this story, so do tell me and ****_NO. MCCXXII _what you think of the story in a review - you'd be surprised just what a single one positive _or_ negative review can to for a writer.**


	2. Chapter 1: Friendly Faces

**At long last, Chapter 1 is here. Both me and MCCXXII are pretty damn proud of what we have made. I'd especially like it if you told us how we did via a review - those help immensely.**

**The optional youtube soundtrack: ** playlist?list=PLfUttKNcUeSbjeMmG9z98WlI5VDId3X0P

* * *

-Chapter 1, Act 2: A New World?-

-?'s PoV-

"Hey, get the fuck over here!" A man loudly yelled to one of his "acquaintances".

"Yeah yeah, I'm awake!" he shouted back. "You don't need to shout like the CP commander!"

Another man loudly grunted, managing to just barely stay afloat on the water they were currently treading in.

"So... where the fuck are we?" one of them asked.

They all looked around in response. Water. Water for miles. And certainly none of it potable.

"What the fuck does it look like?" one of them loudly yelled. "We're in the middle of the goddamn drink, with no navigation or anything. We might as well be shark bait!"

No one bothered to reply to his blow of truth. He was right; they would have to swim if they had any hope of doing anything. When one of them began swimming, the others quickly followed out of a sense of self-preservation. They swam for more than a few minutes, and maybe even an hour.

When all hope was lost, they noticed something on the horizon.

One of the men finally spoke after the extended silence. "Look! Help's arrived!"

The ship kept going, seemingly not noticing the people - That is, until it approached. Because when it did, it slowed down, as a few girls exited from a door on it's exterior. The men looked on, watching them while waiting for their next move.

.

..

...

-Snake's PoV-

🎵 Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - Marshlands (Evasion) 🎵

Snake woke up to the sound of water splashing into his ears. He tried to open his eyes wider, but he immediately jerked them closed. He moved his left hand to his head and wiped off whatever was in his eyes; sand. His vision began to clear up, finding himself lying flat on his stomach on a beach near a shoreline. Pushing himself up on his knees and also brushing off the remaining sand particles caked into his left eye, he tried to wipe away the sand in his solid eye, but couldn't see out of it no matter much he attempted to wipe at it. He believed that the bright lights from the rift must have damaged it's circuits so he decided to leave it alone and stand up straight to start looking around at where he was at.

It was a shoreline on an island with a forest of trees so thick that he couldn't see light pass through. Regaining his thoughts before he fell unconscious, he broke into a sprint and started to run along the shoreline to see if any of his subordinates washed onto shore too.

"Miller!?... Ocelot!?... _Anyone_!?"

After running what seemed to be laps around the island, he collapsed to his knees and began to catch his breath. He fell forward, but caught himself with his hands. He was by himself, he didn't know where he was, and couldn't find any of his men on the island; he was lost. He regained his breath and stood back on his feet, and reached into his pocket to pull out his iDroid. He pressed the button to activate it only to find that the holographic projector didn't work.

_"...Batteries must be fried..."_

He put it back into his pocket and looked out towards the ocean. It seemed endless with no sight of any other islands. He ran over to another point on the island and began looking around some more, he saw nothing. Snake then ran over to another side of the island, and there he saw something in the distance. He squinted his left eye and tried to make out what he spotted. For a second he thought he saw a person moving among the water at an incredibly fast speed, but he disregarded it as an hallucination from his Solid Eye. In the distance, another figure merged behind the person, the 2nd figure seemingly the same height as the first one. The figures looked to be moving closer to the island. Confused at the sight before him and in _dire_ need of help locating his men, he instinctively began to wave his arms in the air to try to draw their attention.

As the two figures began to move closer... he realized that he wasn't hallucinating at all. Moving closer were two short girls. Baffled by the sight before him, he lowered his arms and stared at the approaching characters with disbelief in his eyes.

"...And I thought Sahelanthropus was strange enough..." he muttered to himself in disbelief.

The first figure had bright pink hair with large blue eyes. She wore a dress that looked a lot like a maid's uniform with fluffy trims around her hands and legs. Her chest appeared to be sticking out a bit, which made it seem like the top was too small for her. In her hand appeared to be a large paddle in which it's design seemed to mimic the hull of a ship. The 2nd girl had light brown hair with black bows tied around short twin tails poking out underneath a red hood. She wore a dress with a black coat that had gold buttons and a white trim at its edges. She also had black thigh highs with brown boots. There were two large cannons of a ship along with hulls of a ship sticking out at her sides and she too also had large blue eyes like the first girl.

The two girls seemed to notice Snake's frantic, desperate waving as they seemed to approach the island directly. Snake was still questioning how they were able to traverse the water without a vehicle.

🎵Halo 3 ODST - One Way Ride🎵

"HEEEEYYYY~! DO YOU NEED HELP~!?"

The pink-haired girl shouted loudly as they approached Snake's position. He took a moment to mentally prepare for the possibility that these girls may be potential enemies, before replying equally as loud.

"YEAH! I'M TRAPPED HERE!" he loudly shouted back to them.

The two girls seemed to accelerate, with them closing the distance quite quickly. Snake squinted his left eye again, noticing that the girls legs weren't moving their legs, as if skating across ice. He was simultaneously doubting his mental state and also theorizing if it was some sort of new technology that a major power had developed.

Interrupting his thought, the girls came to a slow and stepped onto the sandy beach. If his Solid Eye was working, he could scan them to see their details. Too bad that it was out of commission.

"So, how did you get here?" the pink-haired girl said, looking him up and down. "You don't appear to be from any particular division..."

Snake didn't move. "Not from any around _here_, no."

"Not from... around here?" The brown-haired girl asked him, sounding so shy that she might break into tears if Snake so much as touched her hair.

Snake shook his head. "I'm forbidden from telling details."

Of course, he actually wasn't forbidden. However, he had no obligation or sensical reason to say that he was part of the Diamond Dogs, so he decided to keep that knowledge a secret for now. Maybe further down the line, he could reveal his info... but by that time, he could be facing these girls on the heartless battlefield instead of in a conversation.

"Ah. I understand!" the pink-haired girl responded. "Still... we can't just leave you here. You want us to call for backup?"

Snake smiled. "I would appreciate that."

The pink-haired girl made a peace sign with her right hand while posing. Snake was suspicious that he could be captured for questioning and/or interrogation, but he had no choice but to accept the help. Either he stays here and dies on this island or accepts the help from these strange girls.

No brainer, isn't it?

The girl pulled out some sort of device from nowhere, and pressed a button on it.

"This is Suffolk. We've found someone stranded and need evac."

A female voice came from it. "Acknowledged. We'll send a basic vessel your way. Are they injured?"

"No. Infact, they appear to be unaffiliated with any known organization."

"I see." the voice replied. "We'll question them when they're back to base."

At these words, the girl pressed the button again, and the device was put back into who-knows-where. Snake reached into his other pocket... good, the _Phantom Cigars_ were still there. Taking one out of his pocket, he used his prosthetic hand to light it. Before he placed it into his mouth, the brown-haired girl approached him.

"Um... tobacco is bad, right?"

Snake looked down at the girl. "Yeah."

She raised her eyebrows in confusion. "Then why are you smoking?"

...What a significant question. Snake had to take more than a few moments to try and think of a way to put it into words. Reasons of why and why not were all popping up in his, but one of them stood out amongst the whirlwind of reasons.

"...Well..." Snake looked at the sea. "It helps calm me."

The girl didn't respond. Snake continued, assuming that it was a cue to not stop talking.

"Some of us need something to keep us from completely losing our cool. Tobacco is just one of those things that people use." The girl merely responded with a quiet 'oh', as Snake finally put the cigar in his mouth. One puff was all it took for the vessel to suddenly arrive.

"Um..."

A tap on his shoulder brought him back to his senses. The brown-haired girl was looking at him, seeming confused about something. Snake turned to face her.

"Are you okay, Mr? You've been standing there for so long..."

"Huh?" Snake autonomously replied, not processing what the brown-haired girl had just said.

The pink-haired girl walked up next to the other girl. "She's right - I've counted, and you've just been standing there smoking that cigar for about 40 minutes. How are you still breathing?"

Snake couldn't stop himself from smiling wryly at their genuine concern. It was very much a valid question, considering that time speeds up massively when he smokes a Phantom Cigar.

"This cigar doesn't have Tobacco. It uses a different, non-toxic drug instead."

The girls stood there, waiting for him to continue with his explanation. Snake was hesitant to give out the name of the drug, not wanting to leak some important intelligence to a potential enemy. But the girls seemed excited.

"Oh, what might that be?" / "Oh... What might... that be?" they both asked in unison.

Right as he was about to give up and open his mouth to give the pink-haired girl a detailed description, a loud horn sounded off.

* * *

-Chapter 1, Act 2: Azur Lane-

🎵Destiny 2 - The Farm🎵

50 minutes after the vessel arrived to pick up our protagonist and his acquaintances, they arrived at the main base of the Azur Lane alliance. There, Snake was going to be escorted by Suffolk and Norfolk to the living quarters of their commander.

"So this is an operational naval military base?" Snake questioned, having never seen a functioning naval base like this before.

Suffolk looked back towards Snake. "Affirmative, mister! Apart from the docks, this is where most of us hang out when we aren't on duty."

He looked around the shoreline, expecting to see buildings of military infrastructure with military personal walking and from buildings patrolling the shoreside and large docks that had ships at bay, but to his surprise, he saw none of that. Instead, he saw a group of people by the beachside, with a few playing in the water and nearly all of them seeming to be female. Equally surprising was that the island didn't appear to have any sort of emplacements whatsoever. Above the shoreline was a staircase made of concrete that led up to a building simply named "shop."

"This looks to be more like a _resort_ than a base..." Snake muttered to himself.

Norfolk heard this, however, as she nervously spoke up from right next to Suffolk.

"Oh…. I-I think it's a base… it has everything we could ever want and need." she quietly responded.

"Yeah!" Suffolk chimed up. "And besides, you're only seeing the fun side of our base."

Suffolk signals with her left hand to Snake to follow her. "Let me to give you a proper tour of the main part of our base."

Snake followed Suffolk towards the concrete stairs with Norfolk trailing behind him. He looks over to see Suffolk's paddle in her right hand disappear with a bright flash while the cannons at Norfolk's side fold up behind her and vanish. He was still baffled by the mysterious logic behind two girls who he first encountered. He thought to himself; _Are there more of them like these two?_ They then approached the busy beachside of the shore where the many girls he saw from a distance where hanging out by.

He noticed two girls were talking to each other while walking straight towards them. One of them had blonde hair with what appeared to be some sort of dramatically oversized scarf and wore a red one piece swimsuit. Her eyes were crimson red and had a large grin on her face as she talked with the other girl. The other had long, lavender hair with two french braids and deep purple eyes. She wore a white see-through gown over a white bathing suit that had purple highlights and a straw hat with flowers and a dark purple bow.

The blond-haired girl noticed Snake, and turned to say something to the other person. After a dozen seconds of brief conversation, both of them walked over to the group. The other girls took notice and gathered around them. The lavender haired girl appeared to be whispering to the group of girls as they crowded close to her. After a minute of gossip, the two girls then turned to face Snake, Norfolk and Suffolk and ran straight over to them.

"Ah! So you're that guy that these two rescued." the blond-haired girl energetically said. Her personality was already overwhelming Snake. He merely nodded in response.

The lavender-haired girl spoke up as well. 'It appears to be. I must say, it is quite rare to see a male other than the commander on base."

Snake didn't respond. The blonde haired girl raised her hand "It's nice to meet you! Names' Cleveland! Light cruiser of the Cleveland-class... and I've got a ton of sisters!"

Snake looked down at her hand and noticed she was wearing black fingerless gloves. He kept a straight face and promptly shaked her hand with a firm grip. He looked over to the lavender haired girl, "And my name is Rodeny! I'm Nelson-class battleship. I do have a bigger sister named Nelson, but she isn't very nice."

Snake didn't even bother to try and ask how they were able to glide across water, or the fact that these two told him that they are part of a subclass of ships. Frankely, he was still processing that these girls were not only capable of floating on water as if it were concrete, but somehow had some serious firepower as if it were man portable.

Cleveland turned around to the group of girls who are seemingly still gossiping over Snake's presence. "Come on girls, don't be shy! Come say hi to the new guy!" And like that, the group of girls ran over and surrounded them. He could barely make out what all of them were saying,

"Hi! Nice to meet you!" said a girl with short blonde hair with white bunny ears.

"Hello mister! Are you a soldier? You sure look tough", said another girl with lime green hair in a dark purple swimsuit.

"Wow… I-I've seen another boy before…" Snake looks down to look at a short little girl with blue short tails "Huh… n-ni-nice to meet you..." She said in a very nervous and shaky tone.

Someone approached him from behind, immediately putting him on high alert.

_"Ara ara~"_

He quickly turned around to find a girl with blue hair and purple eyes looked into his unflinching eye, "I haven't seen my sisters this excited since Helena returned from being stationed in Hawaii."

Another girl with brown hair and cyan eyes approached them and inspected Snake from head to toe. "You look tough, but not as tough as me… heheheh… I never seen anybody dress like that."

"Hello! you must who Norfolk and Suffolk radio about, you're certainly an individual out of the ordinary!" Said a brown haired girl with green eyes.

"Hi… Y-You're so t-tall, Cygnet hasn't seen another human in awhile..." Remarked a short girl with white hair and red eyes.

Snake was starting to get overwhelmed with how many people were currently talking to him, he started to feel stressed on the inside, but remained quiet in the face of the crowd of girls surrounding him.

"Huh… Suffolk… I-I don't he feels comfortable around everyone."

Suffolk stared off at the crowd surrounding them, not hearing what Norfolk said.

"Suffolk!" She suddenly snapped back to reality and looked back at Norfolk.

"Hu-Huh!? What is it, sis?"

Norfolk spoke in a louder tone, "I don't think he likes being surrounded by our friends!" Suffolk looked back at Snake who gathered the attention of everyone in the crowd, excluding her and her sister Norfolk.

"What are going to do!? They… won't leave him alone…" Suffolk looked off in the distance for a few seconds before facing Norfolk. "Leave it to me sister, I will calm them down."

Suffolk took a deep breath, at the top of her lungs she yelled, "OKAY... _EVERYONE, THAT'S ENOUGH… GIVE HIM SOME SPACE!_"

The girls didn't hear her announcement and continued to chatter and talk around Snake. Suffolk looked back at Norfolk, "They aren't listening to me, Norfolk do something!"

Norfolk gave her a very nervous look. "I-I… I don't know what to do! I've never spoken in front of a… crowd before!"

Snake was stuck between a rock and a hard place; he couldn't attack these girls, not only because there was no reason to attack potential allies, but also because he felt he was in enemy territory. But at the same time, he had no route of escape whatsoever. He had dealt with the most advanced weapons the human race could make... but it seems he couldn't deal with humans _themselves_ when the pressure was on. To his surprise he heard a loud high pitched voice that sounded like it came from a child.

**"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU ALL CHATTERING ABOUT!? I CAN BARELY HEAR MYSELF THINK!"**

🎵MGS5 - Withered Peace 🎵

The sound of the child like voice immediately caught the attention of all the girls surrounding him as they all fell quiet and looked over at the top of the concrete staircase. At the top of the staircase stood a frowning young girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes in a black one-piece swimsuit. On her head was a black headband with a small red crown tiled on the side. Beside her was another young girl, but she had a face of concern rather than disgust. She had purple hair tied up into two buns with a red flower on top of her head and wore a blue swimsuit.

The blonde haired girl had her hands at the side of her hips as she looked down at the crowd below her.

"You all better not be talking abo- Huh!?" Her face shifted to an expression of shock. She suddenly caught glimpses of Suffolk and Norfolk within the crowd. It quickly turned back into a frown.

"Suffolk, Norfolk what are you two doing here!? You two are supposed to be on patrol with Hood and Prince of Wales!"

Suffolk and Norfolk faces were filled with fear. Suffolk moved in front of Norfolk to protect her, as Norfolk hid directly behind her.

"W-Were sorry Queen Elizabeth, we w-were patrolling the southeast coast…"

"Yeah… w-we-we we patrolled the region... just as Commander ask of-" the blonde haired girl quickly interrupted her, speaking out in a loud harsh tone.

_"I DON'T CARE, YOU TWO AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE BACK UNTIL LATER! THE COMMANDER GAVE YOU CLEAR ORDERS TO REGROUP WITH HOOD AND PRINCE OF WALES!"_

Snake had no chance to talk at all. He didn't know who this girl was, and didn't have the social skills to deal with her either. All he could do was stand there and watch the argument unfold.

Suffolk spoke in a lower tone, "Queen Elizabeth… we have o-other news…"

This caught the attention of the small but loud girl. She didn't say anything, seemingly waiting for an answer.

Norfolk peeked behind her sister, "We found someone on one of the remote islands."

The blonde haired girl gave her a skeptical look, "Out of all people on earth, who would make you two bring back to the base?"

Suffolk and Norfolk moved off to the side so Snake was in clear visible view of the blonde haired girl. She gasped at the sight of Snake. Almost at a loss for words, she took a moment to regather her thoughts.

"Who is this man and why did you bring him to our base?"

Suffolk took a deep breath, "We found him stranded on an island, he was with nobody and had no supplies with him."

Norfolk, with a little bit of confidence speaked up, "We couldn't leave him alone... on the island… so we decided to bring him back to our base."

"Hmmm…" the blonde haired girl thought. She walked down the staircase towards Snake. The purple haired girl trailed off behind her. By the time she approached Snake, everyone excluding the tall blue haired girl backed away from her.

"Would you mind giving me some personal space, St. Louis?"

"Why yes, my apologies." The blue girl said as she took a few steps away from her and moved beside the shorter blue haired girl.

She started to examine him, looking him up in down trying to get a grasp at who Snake was. The man in question currently was confused; he had never seen a girl so small have such authority before. However, he wasn't as surprised as he thought he would be.

🎵No Music🎵

"You. Identify yourself." The small girl demanded.

Snake, having no other options at this point, proceeded to speak.

"Snake. Leader of the army without borders, Diamond Dogs."

"Hoho..." The small girl smirked. "Army without borders, huh."

The girl stepped slightly closer to Snake. "And what happened to these 'Diamond Dogs'? Couldn't they have just rescued you instead of these two?"

She directed a nasty glare to Suffolk and Norfolk, causing them to flinch and stumble backwards.

Snake quickly replied before things got worse. "We were transported through a rift. It completely destroyed our base, and I ended up on an island."

"A rift, you say..." the small girl put a hand to her chin. "That does line up with a report we got about strange weather activity... how did that rift appear?"

"It was created when 4 lightning bolts made contact in the same spot." Snake concisely replied. "It completely ripped apart our base."

"Hmm..."

The girl took a few moments to process this. She seemed to arrive to a conclusion, as she turned around and raised her voice.

**"CLEVELAND!"**

The girl in question jumped in surprise. "Y-Yes!?"

"Show this guy around our base. Suffolk and Norfolk have lingered around for far too long, and I fear that Prince of Wales and Hood might have been overwhelmed."

Cleveland immediately stepped forward. "Yes, Ma'am!"

The girl then turned towards Suffolk and Norfolk. "Consider yourselves lucky. You will only be let off with a warning this time. However, I expect you to bring forth excellent results when you come back _from the battle._"

She emphasises that last part. Suffolk and Norfolk also step forward. The former looks at Snake.

"See ya later, Snake! If Elizabeth doesn't interrogate you, then I'll help you get used to our base."

Suffolk walked off, with Norfolk in tow. Norfolk waved at Snake, who waved back with his biological arm.

The girl turned back to the group. "All of you, disperse. Inform the rest that a guest is being given a tour of our base."

All the girls bowed their heads, walking off in separate directions - some leaving in groups, others leaving solo.

Cleveland made a 'follow me' gesture with her arm. "Here, I'll take you to meet the Commander first!"

She began walking in a direction. Rodney also followed the spirited girl, with Snake following close behind. As they continued walking, Snake couldn't help but think, _hopefully Miller and Ocelot survived the ordeal._

And with that though, Snake internally switched gears.

* * *

-Chapter 1, Act 2: Azur Lane-

🎵Destiny 1 - Tranquility🎵

He trailed behind Cleveland with Rodney at his side. Rodney looked back to see the two young girls walk onto the beach and saw them sat down on the sand and started to make sand castles. Cleveland looked over her shoulder to look at Snake.

"Heh, bet you're wondering who that short tempered little girl is."

Snake was about to respond, but she continued before he had a chance. "Queen Elizabeth, one of the more respected battleships in the Royal Navy. She's also one of the officers of our base… which means she's our boss."

Rodney caught up behind Snake, "She may look young but she's someone you shouldn't underestimate. Not to mention that she's harsher than my older sister."

Snake looked back at Queen Elizabeth and the other young girl. He saw her standing up over a sand castle that she appeared to have made and it appeared like she was boasting about her castle compared to the other young girl with purple hair.

He was still baffled by the seniority Elizabeth held over the other girls on the beach despite looking amongst the youngest. Clearly, he didn't want to dwell on that thought, as he knew he wasn't on the normal earth he is used to. He then looked over at the other girl who was with Elizabeth. She seemed quite different as she seemed more cheerful than the other young girl. Looking back, he redirected his attention to Rodney, expecting her to follow up Cleveland's statement.

"That other girl who is with Elizabeth is Javelin, one of the J-Class destroyer ships of the Royal navy. She's very nice and energetic." Rodney said.

Cleveland also piped up. "Yeah! The complete opposite of Ms. Hothead!"

Snake decided to finally say something. "I see."

The two girls smiled at his simple remark. Cleveland walked directly in front of Snake, and smiled widely.

"Speaking of Ms. Hot Temper, we're gonna go take you to see her boss - er, the boss of us _all_. The commander!"

Cleveland started walking briskly. Rodney and Snake followed behind. While they were walking, Rodney also spoke up, suddenly shifting to a serious mood.

"Queen Elizabeth mentioned that what you said 'lined up with weather reports we had recently'. Do you know more regarding this?"

Snake furrowed his brows, suddenly stopping. Her words had just reminded him of something that he only had just now cast out of his mind; how were his men doing? Did any of them survive the ordeal.. Did his base survive that rift somehow?

While Cleveland continued walking, Rodney took notice of his sudden pause. She stood in front of him, as he started to get lost in his own thoughts.

"Um? Snake?"

Her concerned tone of voice snapped him back to reality. He looked up from the ground to look at her eye-level. Seeing no reason to keep the incident a secret, he decided to speak - but not before abruptly raising his voice.

"CLEVELAND! WAIT UP!"

The sudden shouting of Snake's voice caught the attention of everyone. Some of the beachgoers jumped in surprise at Snake's very authoritative voice. Cleveland immediately ran back over to where he and Rodney were currently standing.

"Huh? What's the matter?"

"I've got something to tell you." he said in a quiet but serious tone.

The girls faces changed to that of concern. Rodney nodded at Cleveland, and they both motioned for Snake to continue walking while talking. As they were gradually moving down the footpath, Snake took a few moments to mentally prepare himself to recall the event.

"Those 'weather reports' Elizabeth mentioned..." he started speaking, both the girls looking at the sides of his face. "...It likely has something to do with an incident that happened at my base."

""An incident?"" they both remarked in unison.

Snake took another few seconds of silence before speaking. "Before I ended up washed up on that island, a rift appeared at my base. With it, it dragged absolutely everything through it - including the men I've personally trained."

Both girls were quiet. They seemed at a loss for words, struggling to try and take in this knowledge. The small trio gained a good amount of distance before anyone said anything; Rodney was the one to finally break the formidable silence.

"Um... I am sorry to hear about all of this."

Her words sounded unsure. Hesitant, even. Cleveland just continued to stay quiet, but Snake noticed her nodding along with Rodney's words.

But for once, Snake actually tried to smile. It was unnatural for him, but he felt guilty for informing these girls.

"Frankely, I'm happy that your subordinates are treating me so nicely." Snake remarked while smiling. "I was expecting to be departed into a nearby city."

Cleveland finally spoke up. "Don't worry about it! We're all nice here... at least, _most_ of us are..."

Snake was worried about that last part, but neglected to comment on it. They continued walking in silence, with the tense and sombre mood lifted from their shoulders. As they walked, Snake was starting to think even more about the fact that this "base" seemed more like a resort; the various buildings all looked more like shops then warehouses, houses than apartments. It was definitely refreshing for the eyes, but very much _unusual_...

Finally, after what seemed like a short walk, they ended up in front of a large, mansion-like building.

"Alright! Here we are."

Cleveland moved to stand in front of Snake, making a peace sign with both her hands.

"This here is the dorm. Azur Lane spent a hefty amount of coins to make it so fancy-looking - And fancily equipped!"

She was right. This building was reminiscent of how American buildings were; oversized. Comfortable. It looked to be kept in great condition, as it looked absolutely brand new. He wondered about the wealth of Azur Lane as they entered inside.

.

..

...

They walked into a large room that looked like a lobby of a hotel, the walls were navy blue and the floor had a smooth marble tiling. As they entered, Snaked took notice of the large silver crust on the floor near the entrance. It had two logos on both sides, one had an eagle with a shield behind it, the other a lion looking off to the left with a crown on its head.

He looked around for any other people, he couldn't see anyone around, but he heard the sound of whistling coming from a hallway.

"Welcome to the commander's dorm! or as we like to call it, the social space!"

Social space? Snake thought to himself. He didn't let this stick in his head for long, though, as Rodney signaled to him to follow her and Cleveland once again. They walked towards a desk with a girl working at it.

As they approached the desk, the girl looked up from her paperwork. She quickly fixated her eyes at Snake.

"Good Morning miss Rodney and Cleveland." she politely, but monotonically greeted the two girls.

"Haiya Z23!" Cleveland replied.

Rodney smiled warmly in response, "Good morning Z23, how are you today?"

The girl at the desk took off her glasses and refocused her gaze at Rodney and gave her a small smile, "I am doing fine miss Rodney," She responded in a calm tone before her smile slowly fades away. "However, keeping track of a fleet that the commander has commissioned for oil extraction is quite wearying on my focus."

Cleveland had a metaphorical light bulb go off in her head. "Oh! That reminds me, we came to speak with the commander, we have someone who we want him to meet."

The girl redirected her sights onto Snake. "Oh, is this the gentleman who you want him to meet? Hmm… I've never seen anyone dress like that before. Especially not a male other than the commander."

"Yeah, I think he looks badass too!" Cleveland shouted.

The girl looked down at her desk and wrote some words on a paper with a pen, but setting it down to open her mouth once again. "Very well, I will alert the commander of your presence and wait for confirmation on your meeting with him."

She looked over to her right and picked up a blue phone. She turned the wheel around on the phone before stopping to wait for a reply.

"Hello commander… Yes, Rodney and Cleveland are here. They have someone you want to meet… No it's not another dressed up cat from the officer lounge… It's a man in a strange uniform…" She covered one of the speakers on the phone.

"He's skeptical about this meeting, since you arrived in unannounced."

Rodney spoke up "Oh! Tell him that Suffolk and Norfolk found him stranded on an island, and that Queen Elizabeth ordered us to bring him here."

She nodded. "They were ordered by Queen Elizabeth to bring him here, they said that the County twins found him stranded on a remote island within our controlled territory… Very well I will bring them up to you at once… see you soon." She sets the phone back on its stand.

"He said to come up to my office, he wants to meet you, sir…" she politely announced, but still monotonous.

"Snake." Cleveland corrected her. "His name is Snake."

"Oh… how uncommon." The chair lowered as she got up off her chair and away from her desk.

This girl appeared younger than the other two Snake was with. She had light brown hair with a black bow on the side and large blue eyes.

She wore what appeared to be attire for office work and red slippers.

"Nice to meet you Snake, I am Z23, eldest sister of the Type 1936A destroyers." She reached out a hand to Snake.

Snake stared at the girl for a brief moment before shaking her hand.

"Follow me, I will take you to meet the commander." She walked towards the stairwell leading to the next floor.

Rodney, Cleveland and Snake followed behind. After a small flight of stairs, they reached the 2nd floor where Snake noticed someone coming out of a room. She looked like a maid; but what was notable about her was her long white hair. Snake wasn't able to catch a glimpse of her face, as she wasn't facing towards his general direction. He then turned around to see Z23 and Cleveland continuing to walk up the stairs. Rodney from a few stairs up, looked down at Snake.

"Come on, his office is on the 5th floor." she said, continuing up the stairs.

He then rushed up the stairs to catch up with the others as they walked onto the third floor. The hallway that seemed to stretch across the building wasn't present on this floor. In its place was a single door and a wall that sealed off the rest of the floor. Sounds of chatter came from the other side.

"Heh, sounds like they are having another party in there!" Cleveland remarked, looking down further up the staircase.

"Come on, only two more floors to go." Rodney said as she continued her climb up the stairs.

They then reached the 3rd floor of the building. The floor was identical to the floor below as it had the same single door closed off walls, with a minor difference of having a blue floor mat at the door. On the 4th floor, Snake saw the return of the hallways of people's living quarters. This time he saw a little girl come out from her dorm at the far end of the hallway, Snake couldn't make out the face of this individual but took notice of her long silver hair tied into twin twintails with small bunny ears. She looked around the dorm, rubbing her eyes as if she had just woken up from a morning nap.

She looked towards Snake's general direction, giving him the feeling she's staring him directly in the eyes from a distance. Snake, not wanting to seem suspicious, turned around and followed Rodney, Cleveland and Z23 up the flight of stairs one last time to approach the fifth floor of the building.

Finally reaching the 5th floor of the building, Z23 walked down the hallway of a familiar layout Snakes seen 3 times in this building.

"This way mister Snake, the commander's office is down the hall." Z23 looked back as she continued to walk down the hall.

Rodney and Cleveland walked by his side as they continued their journey towards the commander's office. Snake looked at the doors along the hall to notice each doorway had a sign nearby it, each one labeled with different names and numbers. They reached the end of the hallway and turned to walk down the right side of the floor, at the end of the hall was a single room with a golden plaque. Snake assumed this was the commanders office and felt somewhat relieved that they wouldn't be walking through a series of stairs or hallways.

Despite feeling a bit more comfortable being on this base, Snake couldn't let his guard down. All his prior service in the Diamond Dogs has taught that he should never assume he's safe in unknown territory. Even if he was treated as a welcomed guest; he had to keep his guard up in case this meeting with the commander goes south.

When they finally reached the door at the end of the hallway, Z23 opened the door and let Rodney and Cleveland walk in first. Snake looked at the golden plaque on the wall, simply labled "Commander's Office" before walking into the office followed by Z23 who closed the door behind him. His attention was fixated on the desk in the middle of the room. No one was sitting at the desk, but there was someone who was standing by the glass, looking over the view of the ocean. This individual is wearing a white uniform which looks like that of a naval officer. Snake then knew he was in the commander's presence.

"Commander, the guest you want to meet is here." Z23 spoke in a quiet low tone.

Rodney and Cleveland stepped back behind Snake, he felt Cleveland's hand touch his back as she nudged him forward. He slowly walked towards the commander who's still facing the view. He made his way to the group with slow, but gentle steps.

"Greetings, I've been expecting you."

Snake remained quiet as he stared the commander in the eyes, while keeping a straight face.

"Not much of a talker are you?" the commander remarked. "...I understand. Allow me to introduce myself; I am the Commander, the head officer of the Azure Lane alliance. _And you must be...?"_ as the commander reaches his hand out towards Snake.

Snake slowly looked down at the commander's hand, who was wearing white gloves that were free of any imperfections or marks. He then looked back up at the man's eyes, raised his hand and shook the commander's hand.

"Snake. Leader of the Diamond Dogs... the Army Without Borders." he replied while shaking the commander's hand.

* * *

**Here ends the first chapter. I know we've kept you waiting for a while, but when you have two different, equally procrastinating writers making a story... this tends to happen. Again, tell us how we did. Mere favorites don't do much other then imply that you like it.**


	3. Chapter 2: Azur Lane

**Finally, we have Chapter 2 out. Both me and MCCXXII are amazed by the response that this story has gotten, so i'd like to take a moment to thank those many people being patient. The delay was mostly due to procrastination and the (as of this chapter being posted) ongoing SARS-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. Stay safe people, and make sure you've said anything you've needed to say to any high-risk family members before it's too late.**

**Here is Chapter 2... we had a lot of fun writing this one. And as always... fuck the document managers' automatic corrections.**

**The optional youtube playlist soundtrack: /****playlist?list=PLfUttKNcUeSbjeMmG9z98WlI5VDId3X0P**

* * *

-Chapter 2, Act 1-

-?'s PoV-

🎵Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker - Mission Select🎵

Sometime at noon on a remote island, the three mischievous soldiers that Snake had spared have awoken offshore. Unsure of their unfamiliar surroundings, they have searched the island they found themselves on; no other survivors were found. Instead, chunks of debris, the remains of Mother Base, were scattered across the island. God must have spared them, because it was just their luck that a ship just so happened to pass by them right as they were about to lose hope. But the question is... were they saved by the right people?

Fog rolled in as the ship that arrived. It was unlike any ship the three have ever seen. They could tell it was some kind of warship because of the large cannons that stuck out from the top of the ship. The appearance was much more ominous thanks to its black paint accompanied by glowing accents on the ship. After a long silence from the ship stopping along the shore, footsteps could be heard from the ship, followed by an unfamiliar voice.

"Are there any more survivors?" said the unfamiliar voice.

"No... it's just us." One of the Diamond dogs replied.

"Men... you are lucky to have been saved."

A woman then stepped forward on the deck of the ship. She was wearing a black jacket and black camo trousers, and had a metal respirator with a tube that connected to a strange backpack on her back. She appeared to be quite young, but she spoke like she was far more older than she seemed. The sound of her breathing was amplified and muffled by the respirator that concealed her lower part of her face, leaving the three men to feel slightly unnerved in her presence.

The men saluted the woman with impeccable posture. One of them spoke afterwards, "We're pretty damn grateful that you saved us. If you need us to do anything while you take us back to shore, we'd be happy to help."

The woman's reaction was even more unnerving - she let out a sharp breath, almost as if she was amused.

"_You_."

She stepped towards one of the men. "What are you and your men's names?"

The man saluted with fearful resolve. "Hudson."

She directed her gaze to the other men. Frankely, Hudson didn't care much about them as they arrived separately to Mother Base, nor ever interacted with each other. Her eyes fixated on the other two Diamond Dogs, their resolve seemed to buckle.

"...Marcus." one of the other two feebly squeaked out. Immediately after, the other soldier spoke. "Richard."

"And what are your last names?"

Markus spoke up for the other two. "We're not authorized to give them out."

The tiny woman paused for a few moments. The soldiers had expected to be questioned, but she merely just shrugged.

"No matter. You three will be useful in our cause..."

The three soldiers looked at the woman questioningly. She turned back and began to walk away. But before she left, she said something.

"I offer you all a chance to live. You could join our cause and fight with us, or you may stay here on this remote ocean and die of deprivation of resources." She said, giving the three an ultimatum. "Make your choice."

The three soldiers proceeded to huddle together. Terrified of what she would do to them if they refused.

_"Are you serious?"_ Richard whispered. _"We have no choice. We either die here dishonorably, or die fighting for the wrong people..."_

Marcus sighed from behind his ski mask. _"Well, me and Richard are gonna help this lady. What about you, Hudson?"_

Hudson paused for a few moments. His silence did not go unnoticed by anyone in the room, but they chose to do nothing about it. After finally gathering his thoughts together, he finally had his answer.

_"...Damn. I guess i've got no choice either, huh..."_ he whispered in frustration. _"...Alright. I'm onboard with this, too. But if I see the Boss, then i'm not fighting him."_

The other two soldiers nodded, and they disbanded. "Have you made your choice?" the woman asked while she breathed out a large breath from underneath her respirator.

After taking yet another few moments, Hudson spoke for the group.

"Yes. Just give us orders and we will follow them." he said, saluting yet again.

The woman's respirator was the response they got. It was followed up with her muffled voice, however.

"At ease, soldier. As new members of my battalion, my first orders are for you three to board the ship and report to the main deck of my ship."

"Aye Ma'am!" the three dogs barked, moving towards the ladder that was thrown down from higher up on the ship. She then walked over to the edge of the ship where the three soldiers climbed up the ladder. Hearing footsteps behind her, she turned around to face one of her soldiers patrolling the ship.

"Commander, where should I escort these three men?" The masked soldier asked.

She looked back over at the three Diamond Dogs as they finally climbed up onto the main deck of the ship. She then turned to face the soldiers starting out on the three men.

"Take them to the brig for now, they need to meet our chain of command so they have an idea of who they are working for. If any resist, you are authorized to use deadly force." The last sentence that came out of the little girl's mouth put the three men in shock.

"Aye Ma'am" the soldier barked, saluting her and prodding the three Diamond Dogs with his rifle to go in a direction away from the commander of the ship. The Diamond Dogs walked slowly down the deck with the Soldier trailing behind. The girl stared out over the debris of wreckage on the island - the remains of Mother Base scattered throughout the island and waters.

She then heard a beeping sound and quickly reached into her pocket to pull out a tablet like device. She pressed a button on the screen to reveal a distorted voice speaking on the speakers.

"Have you arrived at the sight of where the rift opened?"

"Yes." She replied.

"Have you found any survivors on the islands?" asked the voice on the tablet.

"Yes, only three and they all appeared to be wearing a uniform like us." there was a long pause from the voice coming from the tablet before it decided to speak once again.

"Bring them back to base, we would like to meet these military personnel." the voice paused before speaking shortly after.

"Send an extraction team to the site, savage anything you can find... and be sure to keep your ships jamming radar functional. We do not want any **Kansen** to discover us."

"Aye Aye... _Sigma_." She replied in a less confident tone before tapping the screen on the tablet and putting it back into her pocket of her trousers. She then looked out in the distance with a serious look on her eyes as she stared in the general direction of the wreckage. Everything around her was silent as a distant fog began to roll.

All was quiet, with nothing but the sound of her breathing from underneath her respirator.

.

..

...

-Snake's PoV-

🎵 CoD Modern Warfare 2 - Multiplayer Theme🎵

After he shook the Commander's hand, they both sat in chairs. Z23, Cleveland and Rodney made themselves scarce shortly after. Once a few moments of silence had passed, the Commander started talking.

"I do hope you've found the base to be pleasant. After all, we've spent significant capital on it's looks."

Snake smiled. "I do. Must be good at staying hidden in plain sight."

"It quite is." the Commander replied with a smile that didn't have any specific emotion behind it. "It's 'hidden in plain sight' motif is quite effective at fooling spy planes. I'm sure it's fooled you equally well."

A silent nod from Snake was all he responded with. The Commander continued. "Although, I must say that your attire is quite unusual. You must not be from around here."

The Commander reached under his desk to grab a bottle of whiskey, and two shot glasses. He poured himself some of the fluid, sipping on it quietly. Snake could go for a drink right now, but he didn't want to immediately go for one just yet. He still had yet to eat something, after all.

But that's when the mood suddenly shifted. The Commander's expression grew serious - so serious, that it even unnerved Snake a bit. As the tension in the air thickened, the Commander began asking questions.

"Why have you come here?"

His voice got deeper as he asked that question. Snake took a moment to assemble an answer. He spoke like one of his own soldiers while he passed them.

"I don't know. I was brought here by a rift, and it took my base and men with it. I haven't seen either of them since."

The Commander poured whiskey into his glass again, but placed the whiskey bottle back into his desk.

"Very well. Next question; what are your intentions?"

This time, Snake didn't have to hesitate to think up an answer. "Find my men, find out who's got happy trigger fingers and a bad case of bloodlust, and then gather my soldiers - my Diamond Dogs - to go take them down."

The tension in the air seemed to relax somewhat after Snake's answer. He unintentionally sighed to release the stress building within him. But the tension wasn't gone yet, because the Commander asked yet another question.

"What do you think of my subordinates?"

Snake was baffled by the question. "...I need that rephrased."

The Commander grabbed a piece of paper on his desk. On it was a diagram of how these girls were equipped.

"What do you think of _these_?" he said, handing Snake the piece of paper.

He took a moment to study it, noting how the equipment functioned in a way that could be put into practice back in his world, but in a very clunky and cost-inefficient style. It was impractical to be replicated in his world, wasn't it? The way they are foldable, and how they're lightened for the user... it had to cost a substantial amount of GMP to do so. But what derailed this train of thought was when he recalled seeing Suffolk's paddle seemingly disappear out of thin air. After Snake's long silence, the Commander spoke again.

"I know you're quite curious, but please answer my questions before I answer _yours_... if you have any."

Snake put down the paper. He closed his functioning eye, taking a moment to account for the information he had just found out about. They all seemed a lot less like soldiers, and more like simple civilians. Were they really equipped to do battle in the seas? If they had this technology, then they might be...

After a brief moment of silence, Snake stated his answer.

"They need training. With a proper instructor, they could be forces of nature on the battlefield." he stated objectively.

The Commander closed his eyes, breathing in through his nose. Yet another period of silence followed, but it was significantly more nerve-wracking then the previous ones. A dozen seconds later, and he finally opened his eyes - the tension seemingly disappearing.

"Hmm..." the Commander put both arms on his desk, hands under his chin balled up into fists. "I think I now understand where you are."

With those words, the Commander reached underneath his desk once again and grabbed the bottle of whiskey from earlier. As he poured another shot for himself, he grabbed the other shot glass, pouring some into it and sliding it over to Snake.

"Drink it if you desire."

Snake looked at the glass, then at the whiskey bottle. Shrugging, he took the glass and downed it in one gulp. The Commander watched, smiling as Snake drank it like a dehydrated animal.

"Careful now, you'll want more if you drink it that fast."

Snake took note of this, putting the shot glass back down. He looked up from the glass to the Commander. "So why did you do that? Aren't I your enemy?"

The Commander's smile didn't change. "Not necessarily. You could choose to be, but you haven't made the actions or have the ambitions of one. In fact, your goals line up quite nicely with ours."

Snake's eye widened. "How so?"

The Commander put the whiskey bottle back under his desk again, closing the cabinet door as he did so. "I'm suspecting that some factions that co-exist with us are starting to have a change of heart. Intel reports I've gotten from my spies have indicated that a few factions have gotten hold of some technology... troubling technology at that."

"And you want _me_ to help you deal with them?" Snake finished his sentence for him.

The Commander's smile widened. "Indeed. I knew you'd catch on fast." He grabbed his shot glass in his right hand. "As an incentive to gain your alliance, I will assist you in helping you find your men and let you function independently of us." He downed his shot, turning it upside down on the table. "So... what do you say?"

He reached his hand out again, though with a sense of comradery this time instead of simple formality. Snake took a moment to weigh the facts; he had no idea where he was, what these other factions were and had no clue where his men were. Add on top of that the fact that his base is destroyed, and he's just a single man. It was strangely convenient that this was all playing out the right way... but yet...

...No brainer, isn't it? Snake took his hand, shaking it with a genuine smile on his face. "You've got a deal."

The Commander then looked over at the girls who gathered around a couch in the commander's office. Z23 was sitting up straight reading a magazine on fashion, Rodney looked like she was observing the conversation between the commander and Snake and Cleveland was laying on the couch with her feet on the coffee table, throwing a red gemstone up in the air and catching it.

The commander smiled "_Heh_... sorry for leaving you three in here. I was just having a conversation with a new friend."

_Friend?_ The word stirred around in his head for a brief moment. He only first met the commander about 30 minutes ago and during that time questioned him for showing up to his base. Despite that... he, too couldn't help but feel that he made a friend. Shortly after, the commander spoke once again.

"If any of you aren't busy, I would like one of you to give a tour of the base to Mr. Snake. Get him familiar with our base's facilities."

Cleveland moved her legs off of the coffee table and jumped up from the couch followed by Rodney standing up from the couch. Z23 was still sitting down on the couch reading her magazine.

"You can count on me commander!" Cleveland gleefully responded.

"I am free at this time, so I'd be glad to help show him around the base," Rodney said with a smile on her face.

Z23 looked up from reading her magazine and directed her attention towards the commander. "Unfortunately, I've been assigned to secretary duty while Enterprise is away and the head maid may need some help with organizing paperwork on this week's mission files, so I'm afraid I will have to decline this offer."

"It's alright. Once Enterprise gets back, you're free to go." The commander said as he walked towards the door to let everyone out of his office. Snake got up from his chair and trailed behind the girls as they exited his office. While Snake was walking out, the commander put a hand on his shoulder. Snake instinctively looked behind him.

"May I ask you a quick question?" The commander asked him. Snake nodded as he turned to face the commander to hear what other questions he had for him.

"I noticed that your eyepatch seems bulkier than the ones I've seen... and that shrapnel in your head looks painful." Snake was surprised that the commander had noticed such a small feature on his eyepatch that would go unnoticeable by most people who encounter him. The shrapnel embedded in his head however...

He then quickly responded. "Don't ask about the shrapnel." Snake replied flatly. "My eyepatch is an electronic multipurpose eyepatch. My sight in this eye hasn't worked right for years."

The commander nodded at Snake's response and replied, getting a closer look at the eyepatch.

"I see... well maybe Akashi could fix it, she's the fleet's repairship and head engineer. She also owns a shop somewhere off in the city nearby." Snake took note of his words before departing from the commander's office, trailing off behind Rodney, Cleveland and Z23.

Hopefully he could start finding his men soon.

* * *

-Chapter 2, Act 2-

🎵Azur Lane - Spring Soundtrack🎵

After taking another journey through the commander's dormitory, Snake, Cleveland and Rodney walk out the front door of the building while Z23 went back to her desk to file some paperwork.

"So Cleveland, where should we take him first?" Rodney looked at Cleveland.

"Hmm..." Cleveland thought out loud as she put her hand on her chin as she looked up into the sky, thinking of a facility on the base to visit first.

A light bulb appeared over her head as she jumped up into the air, "I know! Let's go to the Munition shop, I heard there's a sale on single 150mm cannons!"

"Shiranui offering discounts? That's something I've rarely heard of." Rodney replied, following Cleveland who's already walking towards the Muntion store. Snake trailed behind Rodney as she increased her walking speed to catch up to Cleveland. Snake took the time to look around the heart of the base while he slowly walked in the general direction of where Rodney and Cleveland are heading. He wasn't able to fully admire the fresh sense of scenery this naval base had to offer, as he was too busy lost in thought over his men.

He looked over at the center and saw a water fountain with a bunch of plaques around the floor. At the center of the fountain was a large golden anchor that looked free of corrosion from the lingering salty air. He then looked over to his right to look at a group of cherry blossom trees, and a girl who was sitting underneath it while eating an apple - watching the birds eating seeds from off the floor.

While Snake was slowly walking and admiring his surroundings, he wasn't paying attention to a rope that was being stretched across the walkway and tripped over it and fell forward on the ground. This caught Snake off guard, who quickly utilized CQC to cartwheel back onto his feet. He heard the sound of laughter coming from behind both rows of benches.

"Some pretty fancy moves you got there, buddy!"

"D-damm it, he didn't fall flat on his face!"

Snake looked over to his left side to see a little girl with white hair, green eyes and cat ears while smiling as if she was amused with Snake's carelessness.

"My, why the long face? You look like you just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!" the girl with cat ears remarked with a smug attitude.

"I told you we should've raised the rope higher!" he then looked over to see another young girl with light teal hair, orange eyes and two feathers in her ponytail. Snake then gave both of them a frown as he brushed off the leaves sticking to his pants.

"Relax, it's just a prank bro." said the smirking little girl who's slowly irritating Snake. He didn't like the smug aura of this young looking girl with cat ears; it gave him the feeling she's mocking him.

Regardless, he decided to remain quiet as he walked away from the two girls, heading over towards the munition store where Cleveland and Rodney were waiting for him. After another brief and peaceful walk, he arrived at the munitions store with Cleveland and Rodney sitting on a table in the sun.

"Ugh... maybe we should have changed into our normal clothes!" said Cleveland as she tried to shield her head with her hands.

"I told you that you should've put on sunscreen." Rodney replied as she used her hat to fan herself. Cleveland then sat back up and looked over at Snake who had just arrived. She felt relieved that Snake finally regrouped with them as she was already starting to get a sunburn on her shoulders.

"Oh, there you are! Where you've been!?" Cleveland shouted at Snake.

"Did you get lost? Or were you taking your time to admire the scenery?" Rodeny asked him.

Snake recalled the incident he had with the two girls who almost caused him to fall on the ground, but distracted himself by thinking of the scenery surrounding the base.

"The latter." He replied simply.

"Well it's about time you got here! I just hope they are selling sunscreen in there." Cleveland said, getting up from the table and heading straight towards the door. Rodney and Snake trailed behind her while they all walked into the building. As the group walked in, Snake felt a cold breeze of air - it was certainly refreshing compared to the heat outside. The room was silent with nothing but the sound of footsteps coming from Cleveland and Rodney. He looked at the shelves in the room, and on them were metal boxes with labels that filled the entire row of shelves on one side of the room.

He then walked through another row of shelves. This time, something strange caught his attention; there on the shelf next to several rolls of blueprints was a glowing blue cube. He had never seen anything like it, or how it seemed to glow with such radiance. He couldn't help but to pick it up and hold it in his hands. Snake suddenly felt strange holding the cube in his hands, so much so that he _quickly_ put it back on the shelf where he found it before his bad feeling came true. He scanned around for Cleveland and Rodney.

"Well it looks like Shiranui isn't here, so we can't buy anything." Rodney remarked to Cleveland, the latter sighing in irritation.

"Aww, man! I guess I'm gonna have to go in the city and buy some myself later today..." Cleveland said in a disappointed tone. "Snake, where are you?"

Snake emerged from the row of shelves and walked towards Rodney and Cleveland standing near a desk in the room, taking a brief glance back at the blue boxes before looking towards the duo.

Rodeny looked over at Snake and smiled, "Ah, there you are. Unfortunately, the shop is closed so we can't buy anything from here. Let's get going to the next destination on your tour of our base - The Study Hall."

"Ugh, I don't like going to the study hall. They don't have any books I like in there..." Cleveland said with a tone of disgust.

Rodney laughed, "Oh Cleveland... if it wasn't for your lack of interest in reading books, you wouldn't be able to know how to fire your cannons more efficiently."

Cleveland puffed out her cheeks. "It's not that I don't like books... I actually like reading. I just don't like reading boring stuff like _textbooks_."

The three of them walked out of the air-conditioned Munitions building and headed straight to the study hall. The sea breeze felt nice on Snake's skin. It was a source of fondness for him - it reminded him of Mother Base. Maybe one day he'll ask the Commander if he's got a spare oil extraction plant. Thinking various miscellaneous things, he took his time enjoying the brief walk to the Study Hall.

They soon were standing in front of the building, which looked like it would belong in Washington D.C. it's curved shape did make it seem unique, though. Cleveland nudged Snake's arm.

"This is the Study Hall. It's where the Commander sends us when he wants us to improve our skills." She announced. "I just wish they had more than studying books there..."

Rodney followed up. "I suppose I would have to agree. Perhaps we should go ask the Commander to consider expanding the building to have a library section?"

"I like that idea!" Cleveland said, smiling enthusiastically. "Maybe I can have 'em stock some comic books, too! Or maybe even manga!"

Snake was starting to warm up to these two. He smiled at the duo's excitement. But then he remembered something that he said to the commander earlier.

_"They need training. With a proper instructor, they could be forces of nature on the battlefield."_

And that's when he got an idea.

"Hey, you two." he called out to Cleveland and Rodney

The two girls turned back to him. "Yes?" Rodney responded.

"You said that the Commander sends you here. Does he have you read books, or has a teacher around to help you study?"

"Actually, both." Cleveland answered. "We study with books in here, but a teacher lectures us in the Lecture Hall. _Surprise surprise..._" she said that last part flatly.

Good. Maybe he could use his idea after all. But first, he had to ask another question.

"Do they just talk or have you do training exercises?" he asked, looking over at the other building right next to it.

Cleveland's positive smile didn't fade. "Mostly just talk. I wish they'd have us do more physical training! Just sitting in a chair listening to someone is sooooo~ boring~!"

Snake smirked. "Maybe I'll have to get the Commander to change that. All of you girls could use some real training."

Rodney spoke up instead of Cleveland. "And why is that? I can assume that you have experience based on your uniform and looks, but how much of it do you have?"

"Excessive." Snake replied immediately. "I've done stealth missions on my own that could end your life in severe pain if you didn't have the will to succeed. After that, I met some people who showed me things I didn't know, and intel I couldn't have gotten on my own."

While Cleveland and Rodney were listening with sparkling eyes and amused smiles, respectively, Snake smiled fondly. "Add me leading an army of my own on all of this... and you get a man like me. A man who's seen a lifetime of battles in just 20 years."

Cleveland's eyes sparkled even wider. "Wow! That sounds right up my alley! If you do end up being a teacher, then I want you to teach me your stuff as well!"

Rodney chuckled. "My my, I haven't seen Cleveland this excited in a while. Perhaps I, too, might have to join her in your class."

Snake smiled with genuine kindness. But then he remembered that they were still standing in front of the building, instead of inside it.

"Do you want to show me the inside, or move on?"

"There is nothing notable on the interior." Rodney replied. "It is mostly just rows of rooms with tables and chairs. I suggest we move onwards to the Lecture Hall."

Cleveland smiled. "Normally I'd hate going there, but now I actually want to go there!" she said enthusiastically. And with that, they all journeyed over to the next building. The smell of nature got Snake's mind going again, reminding him of his- no, _Big Boss's_ time in Tselinoyarsk. At the same time, it reminded him of that day...

**"Do it, Snake... you have no other options."**

Snake shook his head, trying to dismiss the words playing back in his head.

**"One must die and one must live. No victory, no defeat. The survivor will carry on the fight. It is our destiny... The one who survives will inherit the title of Boss. And the one who inherits the title of Boss will face an existence of endless battle."**

Snake shook his head even faster, trying even harder to get her voice out of his head. He wouldn't let The Boss's phantom words haunt him like they did for the original Big Boss. He had his own army, and his _own_ will. _His_ Diamond Dogs had taught him that.

"Hey, Snake! You coming or what?!"

Cleveland yelled from a short distance away, waving her hand. Snake smiled subtly, and walked over to the two girls.

_**"BIG SIIIIISS~~!"**_

An unknown voice yelled those words loudly, startling Snake, Cleveland and Rodney. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another girl making a mad dash straight for the two girls. Stopping, he decided to watch the encounter from a distance. The unknown girl had long, silver hair that reached down to her kneecaps. It also had extra hair sticking out that resembled cat ears. Unlike the other two, she wasn't wearing a swimsuit - she instead wore a long-sleeved black shirt with red accents, with a side-facing cape and a long, narrow scarf going down her torso. She had track shorts, and thighhighs that showed a small amount of skin.

She ran up to Cleveland, panting heavily. Cleveland wrapped her arm around the unknown girl's shoulders.

"Hey there, Monty! Wanted some good ol' spoiling from big sis again?" she said, grinning widely.

The girl was caught off guard by Cleveland's words "U-Um..." her eyes darted around nervously.

"Ahaha~ I'm just kiddin'." Cleveland said, nudging the girl in the arm. "I know you just wanted to say hi. But if you really _do_ want to be spoiled, we can do that later. I'm giving someone a tour of the base right now.."

She looked over at Snake, who was standing a short distance away. He walked over to them, his combat suit clanking loudly with each step. The girls watched him as he approached, with the unknown girl looking especially wary.

When he arrived, he stuck out his hand to the girl. "Snake. Your 'big sister' is one hell of a character." he said, smiling. Cleveland also smirked at this, but she just stood there looking at the hand blankly. Cleveland nudged her again.

"Go on, Monty. Give the new guy a handshake." she said in a surprisingly gentle tone of voice. This seemed to break the girl out of her stupor, since she slowly and unsurely grabbed Snake's hand.

"Montpelier, reporting in. I'm guessing you haven't seen the Commander yet."

Rodney, who was quiet all of this time, finally spoke up.

"Oh, he has. It seems the Commander has taken a liking to Snake as well, as he gave him some whiskey during their conversation. I haven't seen him do that for a very long time."

Montpelier autonomously replied with an 'Oh', turning back to walk away in the direction of the Office. When she was a fair distance away, Cleveland grabbed Snake's arm, tugging him along to the front doors of the Lecture Hall.

"Alright, with that out of the way; let's keep going with the tour." Cleveland said as they entered the building.

...

-Chapter 2, Act 3-

They walked up the stairs of the lecture hall, and into the building. Snake stared down the hallway lined with lockers. At the edge of the hallway were a group of girls talking amongst each other. The group could hear them talking from the other end of the hallway.

_"Let's try to keep our voices down, I think there are classes in session at this time."_ Rodeny whispered as she walked down towards a hallway to the left of Snake while Cleveland signaled to Snake to follow them.

While they were walking, Snake could hear voices coming from a few rooms in the hall. He looked through the windows on the doors to see what the insides of the classrooms looked like. They were simple, they had a few desks with a large desk in the middle for where the teacher would sit.

He then looked towards the hallway they were walking down. Rodney then stopped at a random classroom in the hall, with Cleveland and Snake stopping as well to look into the door of the classroom. It appeared there was a class in session, the one who appeared to be teaching the class was a young girl with blonde hair with twin long tails and blue eyes who was wearing a formal military uniform.

"Heh, looks like Amazon is giving another lecture on evasion techniques." Cleveland said with a smirk on her face. They watched as she started to hop from side to side, back to front and then a mix of them - all while the students sat in their tablets to watch. She then walked over to a girl sitting at her desk, who got up from her desk and walked to the front of the class.

She looked worried, scared to perform in front of the class while the teacher sat on top of her desk. She then jumped to the left. then to the right and almost losing her balance while jumping. She corrected herself as she stood back up straight. Everyone clapped for her, with Amazon walking right up to her to shake her hand. Cleveland smiled and clapped quietly while Rodney giggled.

"Heheh~, Arizona is quite the introverted one isn't she?" Rodeny said, turning to face the direction they came from. "Let's move onto the next destination in our tour." She said as she waited for Snake and Cleveland to move ahead of her. Snake led the way while Cleveland and Rodney followed him out the main entrance.

"So Cleveland, where should we take him now?" Rodney asked.

"Well, if I were honest... I think we covered all the main parts of the base." Cleveland said, looking around the base to find other spots. "The only places we haven't checked out is the officer's lounge, the oil warehouse and the merchant shop." Cleveland said as she rubbed the sun burns on her forearms.

"I think he can see those on his own time." Rodney replied, "I hope you don't mind if we've cut the tour short."

Snake gave her a smile. "Not at all. Thanks for the tour."

Cleveland and Rodney Smiled back.

"Your welcome~!" they both said. Cleveland stepped forward.

"If you need anything else, you can always ask me!" said Cleveland as she gives Snake a thumbs up.

"If you need to find us, our dorm numbers are B12 and G26." Rodney remarked. Snake took note of the numbers. "Just be careful not to knock too hard on mine! Monty gets paranoid easily." Cleveland said, looking back at Snake as she headed straight towards the group of buildings at which Snake can assume are the girl's dorms.

"See ya Snake! I gotta go get me some Sunscreen!" Cleveland yelled as she walked away.

"Hope to see you again soon Snake, goodbye." Rodeny said while waving to him before rushing off after Cleveland. "Wait for me, Cleveland!"

.

..

...

🎵Metal Gear Solid - The Best is Yet to Come🎵

Snake was left alone now. It had been a while since he could hear his own thoughts clearly. At the same time, he had no idea what to do now... maybe some relaxing could be called for. He then quickly remembered his idea from earlier... and with that realization, Snake set a course for the Office again. During his walk, he experienced flashbacks of Mother Base.

**"Boss, shouldn't you head back to mother base every so often?"**

Ocelot's voice rang out in his head with an echo. He was constantly reminded by him to come back to Mother Base, since Snake commonly spent a lot of time off-base. At least this time, he had more than a base to come back to.

**"Boss, the R&D team has come up with something special - I think you'll like the things they showed me."**

Ah, this memory... When the R&D team showed him the Riot SMG that was outfitted with rubber bullets, Miller excitedly radioed him that day. Needless to say, Snake was as excited as Miller was, since he was tired of using only the Tranq. Gun on his missions. Eventually, he had more than just a submachine gun, too - assault rifles, shotguns and even rocket launchers were all made non-lethal thanks to his team. They had his immense respect.

**"Boss... there's been another outbreak on Mother Base. Get back here, ASAP."**

And then his brain decided to pull a 180 by showing him this memory... The memory of when he had to kill his own men to prevent another vocal parasite outbreak. This memory had haunted him since - the loyal men he lovingly trained like his own children were slaughtered by his own hands. Even then, he still found the self-control to spare the man responsible. it was something that showed that he was more than just a demon.

_**"Let's let the Boss decide. We live and die by your orders, Boss."**_

***BANG x7***

After he had euthanized those loyal of their misery, he only just _barely_ managed to keep his emotional pain in check. That is, until he crumpled to his knees in the quarantined building, letting out a scream of pure despair was heard by no-one except him followed soon after.

Snake stopped walking, clenching his fists. He had to get this memory out of his head before he started to break down again. He dramatically quickened his pace to a run, making a beeline straight up the stairs to the fifth floor. Nearly kicking open the door, he stopped right in front of Z23's desk, getting down onto one knee and panting quickly. Z23, surprised by Snake's exhaustion, quickly exited her chair and knelt down next to Snake, putting a hand on his back.

"Hey, are you okay?" she said in concern.

Snake took several seconds to take in the necessary oxygen that his legs were demanding, and finally stood up. He looked down at her, attempting to smile reassuringly.

"I'm fine. Just wanted to see how fast I could get here." he replied, hiding the true reason.

Z23 sighed in relief. "That's good. The way you were panting reminded me of how some of our staff run back for cover while wounded... it made me worried." She walked back over to her chair, sitting on it and moving several papers to the side. "So, what warranted your quick pace?"

Snake looked past her to the door. "I've got something to talk about with your Commander."

"Again?" Z23 said in a monotone voice. "Very well. I cannot guarantee that the Commander will have enough free time for a second visit, so please be ready to accept that."

Snake nodded in silence. Z23 once again picked up the phone, now replaced with something significantly more modern. Pressing a few numbers into the keypad, she put the phone to her ear.

"...Ah, Commander. This is Z23. Snake wishes to ask you something... You were just about to take a break?... Yes, I will send him in."

Z23 put down the phone, ending the call. "It seems you were quite fortunate, as the Commander was just about to take a break. You may enter without me accompanying you."

Snake got off his chair, walking over to the door behind her. Z23 turned back around, grabbing some sort of large mobile device from under the desk. As he entered the room, the smell of paper was rife in the air - a smell that wasn't there before. The Commander was getting up from his chair, putting a piece of paper onto a neatly piled stack. Noticing Snake, he moved the papers to a drawer from his right.

"Welcome back, Mr. Snake. Please have a seat. I just finished filing some paperwork." the Commander said as he directed Snake to the couch on the right side of his office. Snake took a seat on the couch, and the Commander took a seat opposite of him.

Snake started with some small talk. "Fancy office you have."

"Why, thank you. I do my best to keep it in excellent shape." The Commander replied.

Snake motioned to the desk. "How about you bring out some of that Whiskey?" he said, faintly smiling.

"Hmm... very well. I could go for a couple of drinks." Said the Commander as he walked back over to his desk. He opened the cabinet where he kept his bottle of whiskey. He pulled it out and set it on top of his desk along with two shot glasses.

Snake grabbed one of the glasses while the Commander then opened the whiskey bottle and poured shots for the both of them. The Commander took the first shot, with Snake soon following up. Snake spoke first.

"You said that you'd assist me in finding my men, right?" Snake asked, putting down the glass. The Commander kept his glass in his hands. Smiling.

"Indeed." he replied. "Since you have decided to work with us, I think I may have something that can help start the process."

Snake's eyebrows raised up. "What?"

The Commander proceeded to walk over to his desk, grabbing a seperate piece of paper that was left out from the pile earlier. He walked back over to the couch, placing it on the coffee table in front of them. He started to speak again.

"This is a photograph of an old offshore oil extraction plant that we had previously used. However, it has been abandoned due to its location in a hostile faction's territory."

Snake looked down at the paper. It was indeed an oil extraction plant, and it had a bit of resemblance to the one that MSF used to own. And to think he was thinking about this not twenty minutes ago... odd.

Snake grabbed the paper. "Looks like it could use some repairs. Enough arm grease and it might be useful."

"That is quite right." The Commander remarked. "I wish to give this to you as a token of goodwill."

Snake put the paper back down on the table. "Is that so...?"

The Commander grabbed the whiskey bottle, pouring some more shots into the glasses. He took a sip of his own instead of downing it immediately. Once he placed the glass back onto the table, he finally answered.

"It _is_ so. It was constructed to be modular in case we ever required more oil extraction. We have several blueprints of modular, multipurpose platforms somewhere in the Study Hall. At a later time, I will retrieve those and give them to you."

He was getting a sense of Deja Vu now. The way that this conversation was going was reminiscent of how Big Boss acquired the initial Mother Base platform, and how he acquired the Diamond Dog's version of Mother Base. Even more odd.

The Commander continued sipping his whiskey, while Snake immediately also did the same, not opting to get drunk. Several seconds of silence pass, the both of them enjoying their whiskey. The Commander put down his cup, and leaned forward to take a good look at Snake's face. Snake, feeling slightly uncomfortable, didn't know how to react.

"You look a bit weathered." the Commander stated. "When was the last time you got some sleep?"

Snake took a moment to think about that. He had woken up in the morning in his own world at 0530 hours, and it was currently 1800 hours. He had been touring this facility for a few hours, which meant that he would have spent either significant time on the boat or significant time knocked out on that uninhabited island.

Needless to say, it was a long time.

Snake emptied his cup in one swig, putting it back on the coffee table and sliding it away. "Roughly 15 hours."

The Commander's eyes widened. "Oh my. In that case, I think I shall cut this short." he said, getting up from the couch and walking over to his desk. "Have Cleveland or Rodney shown you the Dorms yet?"

Snake shook his head. The Commander opened a cabinet door to his left, revealing a phone behind it along with some other electrical equipment that Snake couldn't identify. The Commander picked up the phone, and dialed a number.

"...This is the Commander. If you aren't currently occupied, I have someone I would like for you to escort to the Dorms... yes, it is in fact him... ah, I see. Please hold on for just a moment."

The Commander put a hand on the microphone part of the dialer. "I have someone who will escort you to the Dorms. She will be here in a few minutes, as she is currently preoccupied, so feel free to relax on the couch if you wish."

Snake merely laid his head back on the couch, only just now realizing that he was actually pretty tired. He was used to staying up far later for the purpose of Side Ops, but he was still human. The Commander brought the phone back to his ear.

"I appreciate the help as always. We will see you shortly."

The Commander ended the call, placing the phone back into the cabinet. Snake closed his eye, letting himself relax naturally for a moment. He heard the sound of paper being put onto the desk as he laid down on the couch.

.

..

...

After a few minutes of sitting quietly with his eye closed, he started to drift off into sleep. In his dream, he saw himself at Mother Base. It was their first day going into headquarters, and Ocelot was showing him around the Command Platform. Ocelot was having a training session with a small group of soldiers. They each took turns firing a gun, until one of them took his turn.

"Hold it."

Ocelot stopped the soldier from firing. The soldier looked back to Ocelot, attempting to hoister his gun. Ocelot stopped him however, raising the soldier's hand with his own.

"The way you're firing that is wrong. With an automatic, you don't need to account for recoil - you do that with _revolvers_."

Ocelot was about to continue speaking, but suddenly the dream stopped. The sound of a door opening brought Snake back to reality. He opened his eye and was greeted with a blurry vision for a moment.

With his blurry vision, he saw a figure walk through the doorway and into the room. After a few moments, his vision cleared up to reveal a woman in a maid uniform standing before him and the Commander.

She spoke in an elegant manner. "Good afternoon, Commander. I am here to escort the new individual to his living quarters."

"Good afternoon Belfast, he's right over there on the couch." Said the Commander as he pointed to Snake laying on the couch.

Snake's eye widened at the sight of the lady who stood before him. She had long white hair and big navy blue eyes. Her figure was an incredible sight to look at, and her skin tone was pure. The beauty of this girl amazed him; it almost baffled him that a girl like her would take on the role of being a maid, since she looked almost like a princess of a royal family. She looked over at Snake and smiled.

🎵Final Fantasy XIII-2 - New Bodhum🎵

"Greetings mister, I am Belfast, the head maid of the royal navy." she bowed formally. "I will be at your service this afternoon and in the evening." She said formally as she lifted up the sides of her skirt and bowed her head towards him.

Snake didn't know what to do in this situation - he had never given a greeting this way before. He decided to remain quiet and sat up straight to look her in the eyes.

"My, is he okay Commander?" Belfast asked in a mildly concerned tone.

The Commander spoke up. "Yes, he's just tired. This is Snake; he is a commander of a group known as the Diamond Dogs. He will be staying with us for a while."

Belfast replied, "Very well. I will take him to his living quarters and help him get settled in."

"Great. I will give you the keys to his room. Be sure to give him some information on the times of chow. I bet he's hungry." the Commander replied.

While Snake wasn't bothered by his lack of hunger, he would like to get something to eat as he only had a couple shots of whiskey today. Belfast then nodded in response and she walked up to the Commander's desk where he handed her the keys. She looked towards the couch and walked over to Snake.

"Come, I will take you to your quarters now."

Snake stood up and followed Belfast out the door.

"Thank you Belfast." The Commander said as he walked back over to his desk and sat down in it. "If you have any more requests or things you wish to talk about, give me a call. I'll do my best to arrange some time if needed."

Snake followed behind Belfast as they both walked out of the Commander's office. She led the way down the hallway as Snake trailed behind. After a somewhat lengthy journey through the floors, they arrived at the 2nd floor at a dorm labeled, B80.

_A coincidence?_ Snake thought to himself.

Belfast then unlocked the door, and opened it wide while signaling for Snake to go inside.

"Thank you." He said to Belfast as he walked inside of his room.

It was fairly roomy for a soldier's living quarters; enough room for him to call it home and not too big for it to be considered an apartment. Strangely enough, he already felt like he was at home. As the leader of the Diamond Dogs he was treated with higher respect - like a living legend. Despite this, he prefered to live under the same conditions as his men. Throughout his entire service in the Diamond Dogs, he lived in the same sized living quarters as his subordinates. Every time the higher ups offered him a more luxurious living space, he always declined the offer and stuck with his smaller living space, citing _'just because i'm put on a pedestal doesn't mean I'm entitled to better living conditions.'_

The living quarters he walked into was for the most part empty. The walls were painted light blue and the floor was polished wood. It had a bed near a window that was in view of the oceans and a desk with a chair in the corner of the room. Belfast walked in behind him and spoke.

"This is where you will be staying Mr. Snake, I hope the living space is sufficient for your comfort."

He turned around to face Belfast and gave her a small smile.

"Yeah, this will work." He said before turning around to examine his new living space.

"If you need anything, you may call for me. I am at your service. However, if I am not available, one of the other maids will assist you. Now I must go, I have laundry that I must attend to, goodbye." Belfast said as she bowed her head before leaving the room.

Snake scanned his room, examining all the imperfections before walking over to the door to close it. He slowly strolled over to bed and laid down onto it. Snake could tell this room hasn't been occupied for awhile as he was looking up on the ceiling, noticing a few cobwebs in the corner of the room. The room had dust particles floating in the air, and some of it got into his nose which made him sneeze uncontrollably. He looked to the window and immediately opened it. Fresh air flooded the room, carrying the dust particles outside.

The room needed maintenance if he was going to call this room his own. He wanted to start cleaning up his living space, but he felt too tired to get up again... So, he laid his head down back onto the pillow.

Snake stared directly up at the ceiling again, thinking about where his men could be. He couldn't shake the thought out of his mind. He was deeply concerned with where his men were and couldn't rest easily knowing they were most likely stranded on an island, cut off from the outside world. He didn't like the thought that he was safe in a naval base while his soldiers were still out there. It filled him with a sense of guilt.

Snake could only hope that all the wilderness training he instilled into them would help them survive until they could regroup. This thought sank deep into his mind as he slowly began to fall asleep. Tomorrow, he knew it would be a big day. Knowing that he's in a new world, part of a new military base and working with new allies, he would begin his search for his men.

He would make damn sure of it.

.

..

...

* * *

-Chapter 2, Act 4-

-Suffolk's PoV-

🎵CoD Modern Warfare 2: Plan B🎵

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, Suffolk and Norfolk continue their patrol route; albeit with a delayed start due to rescuing Snake. They skated across the water at a quicker pace then usual; their unexpected rescue of the quiet soldier had cost them some time... time they could have used to help Hood evacuate. A few hours later, they entered colder waters where icebergs were floating amongst the infinite seas.

"This is Command Central, do you copy Alpha Team?" the chest-mounted radio from Suffolk crackled with the voice of Z23... or as most of her allies call her, _Zed_.

Norfolk looked over at Suffolk, she was staring off over the horizon where the oceans seemed to span infinitely. Norfolk, who quickly realized she was daydreaming again, skated closer to her sister and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Suffolk?" Norfolk said with a look of concern on her face. Suffolk immediately snapped back to reality from her gaze over the ocean.

"Huh!? What happened?" She said in a surprised tone.

"Come in, Alpha Team. What's the situation? Over." Zed asked again, but in a more frantic tone.

Suffolk quickly responded to Z23. "Oh... Y-yes, we haven't detected any Ironblood ships over our radars... we are within the AO of Hood and Prince of Wales and continuing our scouting missions, over."

"Acknowledged. Keep a sharp eye out, Out."

Suffolk took a deep breath right as another crackle came from the radio. Before she spoke again, she looked over at Norfolk, who seemed to be shivering. She had to be strong... if not for herself, then for her sister.

"Hmm... Intelligence reports that the Ironblood's newest battleships are set to sail through this area. If we surprise them here, Queen Elizibeth will surely..." She grimaced. "...not be _too_ disappointed in us today, upon our return..."

Norfolk looks back over at Suffolk, with some tears in her eyes. "Uh... Are we really going to be a match for them?" She says to Suffolk as her teeth chatter.

"The water is so c-cold... My entire body feels like it's turning to ice... Why couldn't they give us coats before we'd de-departed from the port?" she said. Norfolk wasn't lying, either - Suffolk was also starting to feel quite cold as well.

Suffolk gave her a cheerful look. "It's going to be fine! We're just here to scout. If a fight kicks off, our big sisters will handle it. They are within close proximity of our location and are ready to provide support when we need it~!"

She squinted her eyes off north towards the fog in the distance, looking for any ships nearby. Of course, there being _fog_ in the way, there was little that her eyes could do on their own. They would need binoculars, which they didn't have.

"All I see is fog and ice... I don't think anyone else is around. And no matter if battleships appear, they'll turn around and retreat once they find out that our big sisters are here, haha!"

She put on a brave front for Norfolk, hiding the fact that she was actually a bit nervous at the silence that surrounded them. Norfolk also seemed equally unnerved, but didn't hide it.

"Something doesn't feel right sis..." Norfolk said. "..Don't you think? I'd be relieved if Queen Elizibeth decommissioned us of our scouting duties... so we could go back to base and eat dinner."

Suffolk then heard an electronic *ping* coming from her rig.

"Huh?... I'm getting something on my radar, seems to be picking up a strange signal up ahead..."

"What? Let me see." Suffolk said as she leaned over onto Norfolk's back to get a better look at it. She gasped

"Ironblood destroyer squadron detected ahead!" Suffolk shouted loudly "Maybe it's just a few scouts? We must report to Hood Immediately!"

"My... my antenna is... f-f-frozen into... a p-p-popsicle..." Norfolk stammered, shaking even more out of fear now.

This was not good at all. Surprised, isolated and outnumbered with only her skittish sister Norfolk as support... there was no way they would be getting out of this without some serious damage. That is, **if** they did. But then she realized that her antenne wasn't frozen - she quickly informed Norfolk of this.

"I can still radio for support!"

Without waiting for a reply, she pressed a button on her rig's radio. "Command Central, this is Suffolk from Alpha Team. We have a fleet of Ironblood destroyers! Over!"

"Copy, what is your Locat-" Z23's voice was abruptly obscured as her voice was slowly fading into the sound of static dominating the sound on her radio.

"Oh no... My radio's signal is too weak..." Norfolk said with pure fear in her voice. She hugged Suffolk's arm tightly, now completely scared. Suffolk put a hand on her sisters back for emotional support. As the fleet approached, she pried Norfolk off her arms and put her strong front back on.

"We've got to hold off their squadron. It's just a few production-type destroyers... we can handle this!" Suffolk said bravely.

"Are... are we actually going to fight?" Norfolk says as more tears slowly run down her cheek, "I knew this would happen..."

🎵Azur Lane OST - Standard Boss Theme ( アズールレーン)🎵

The fleet of destroyers moved in closer on their position, Suffolk held out her paddle in anticipation of the fight while Norfolk shivered in the cold, directing her cannons at the oncoming fleet of destroyers ahead of them. Norfolk slowly shifted her face to look serious despite still being afraid on the inside. The fleet opened fire on the two girls, and they took evasive action by skidding sideways, narrowly dodging the slow-moving bullets. They retaliated by firing their cannons directly at the enemy vessels. A storm of bullets followed, from both sides.

"My torpedos are ready to fire, stand back!" Suffolk said as she skated forward in front of Norfolk, making an arc trajectory to get a point-blank shot at the targeted enemy. This strategy worked, as the target was sunk with those torpedoes one by one, the ships exploded with a loud bang as they slowly submerged into the depths of the ocean.

"Yes!" Suffolk said, raising her arm and clenching her fist. "That's what you get for ambushing us!"

Her celebration was short lived though, as she was hit by direct cannon fire from a ship that was closing in on them. Suffolk stumbled backwards on the water, not punctured but definitely damaged.

"Move back!" Norfolk yelled loudly, surprising Suffolk "Let me... Let _me_ take a shot!"

Norfolk stood in front of Suffolk, outstretching her arms. An energy barrier appeared out of the air, stopping a volley of bullets that were intentionally aimed at Suffolk. The pink-haired shipgirl took a moment to catch her breath, her rig also reloading it's rounds.

"Thanks, Norfolk! You did good!"

Norfolk looked back to smile at her sister. But right at that moment, the barrier shattered - torpedoes from the enemy ships had barraged it while she was distracted. Norfolk recoiled backwards, and Suffolk caught her from falling onto the water. Angered by this, Suffolk glared at the vessels, readying herself to retaliate.

She moved forwards again. "Now it's my turn!"

A storm of bullets shot out from Suffolk's rig at incredible speed, causing significant damage to the enemy ships. All but one were sunk from Suffolk's counterattack, and the surviving one was lit on fire. She once again celebrated_ (though internally this time)._

Norfolk followed up her sister's volley of bullets with a volley of torpedoes of her own at the last destroyer ship. A few impacted the ship as it exploded and slowly began sinking beneath the water while on fire.

"Wow, Suffolk! We're so strong! We defeated this entire fleet on our own!" Norfolk enthusiastically said. Her sister's excitement was exactly what her morale needed, and she felt herself re-motivated to continue the scouting mission. However, she had to correct one thing.

"Don't celebrate just yet." Suffolk warned. "Those ships were clearly there to test us. We haven't even seen Ironblood's newest battleship yet." Suffolk felt a deep pit in her chest as a humanoid figure slowly emerged from the fog "...I got a bad feeling about this..."

"Hehehe..." The figure said hidden within the mist of the fog, unnerving the County Twins. "So there was an ambush after all! Looking for us?" She moved into clear view of the two. There, floating on top of the water was one of Ironblood's most feared heavy cruisers, Prinz Eugen.

She sat on top of her rig, floating on top of the water, staring at them with her amber eyes. She had her index finger on her lips, and although she sounded teasing, she had a disinterested expression on her face. She was wearing a gray and dark red military uniform with the iron cross on top of her chest and on the sleeves of her arms. It was rather revealing as her thighs exposed as well as the sides of her chest.

"Eugen... I-I wasn't e-expecting to find you here..." Suffolk said in a nervous tone.

Prinz Eugen stood up off her rig and standed up floating above the water while still keeping a disinterested expression on her face.

"My... I haven't seen such cute little cruisers around these waters~" She said in a very teasing manner. She was toying with them, intimidating the County Twins with her presence.

"Huh..." Norfolk hid behind Suffolk, shaking in fear over Prinz Eugen standing before them. Without hesitating, Suffolk radioed for help.

"Danger! Enemies at Starboard! Two large warships detected at 220 degrees... New Ironblood battleship spotted! All personal, get ready to fight!" She said frantically.

"Haha~ Two puny cruisers? Getting ready to attack? Hah! I suppose I'll try to enjoy this as much as I can~!" Prinz Eugen said with a mischievous grin on her face.

Suffolk was scared, but didn't want to back down without a fight. She gave Eugen her bravest warface.

"I'm not scared of you!" she said, as her rigs guns pointed straight at Eugen. The Ironblood ship only smirked cruelly as she charged forward. Eugen manifested a barrier in front of herself before Suffolk's guns could fire at her. But that's when another ship suddenly appeared within the fog.

"Not just two cruisers!"

The figure surprised the County Twins and Eugen, stopping the battle right before it began. They watched as a woman wearing a hat and a navy blue overcoat emerged from the fog. Suffolk and Norfolk's eyes widened when they saw her approaching.

""Big Sis!""

The older girl looked at them and smiled. "Hood and Prince of Wales from the Royal Navy are here to help!"

Another figure appeared from the fog. She had blonde hair and was wearing a red-and-white navy uniform. She didn't say anything, and simply moved to float right next to Hood. The latter looked at Eugen.

"Let's have a showdown, shall we?" Hood said. She turned back to the County Twins. "You did well. It's time we give the Ironblood a taste of their own gunpowder."

She looked back towards Eugen, as another figure appeared from the fog. The figure had yellow hair as well, and was wearing a black hat with a black uniform.

"Target Bismarck, their lead ship!" Hood said, looking at the person in question.

Eugen smirked a slight bit. "'The Glory of the Royal Navy'? This might be fun... I wonder if you're enough to satisfy me."

Suffolk and Norfolk quickly skated forwards towards Bismarck, ignoring Eugen entirely. A volley of bullets collectively shot from the county twin's mounted guns. However, this didn't even seem to phase the mysterious ship.

Bismarck was about to move forward, but Eugen held out her arm, stopping her.

"Wait." Eugen said. She then smiled unnervingly. "I want to play with these toys~" Eugen skated forwards in front of the County Twins. She then quickly fired a barrage of bullets from her cannons. Suffolk and Norfolk evaded the storm of bullets, but still got hit by a few.

"Come on Sis, we can take her!" Suffolk said as she moves forward to fire her cannons at Eugen. Norfolk panting from narrowing dodging the array of bullets, catched her breath and moved forward to direct her firepower towards. Their shots impacted Prinz Eugen with great force, she started to stumble back a bit from the twin's combined firepower.

"Hmm... You've got quite the firepower, but it's useless against me!" She stretched her hand out and materialized three energy barriers in front of her before moving both her arms out to her sides. The energy barriers then began to revolve around her, blocking the majority of the County twin's bullets.

"What?... our shots aren't hitting her..." Norfolk said

"Hahahah~ my turn~!" Prinz Eugen laughed sinisterly as she fired her cannons and a volley of torpedoes. they quickly evaded the torpedoes, but were mowed down by the cannon fire as they took heavy fire from Eugen.

"Ahh!... I don't think m-my hull can take much more of this!" Norfolk said while sobbing. Suffolk covered her face with her paddle as she continued to take heavy fire from Eugen's merciless cannon fire. She was grunting in pain from how much damage she was taking from her while trying to hold her position.

"Not to worry sisters, let us handle this!" Hood yelled as she and Prince aimed their guns at Prinz. Both of them fired a barrage of large bullets. They flew through up into the air at a high velocity and came crashing down onto Prinz Eugen. They exploded upon hitting her, shattering her shields and causing her to nearly collapse from the impacts. Suffolk and Norfolk, no longer under heavy fire, fired storms of bullets and torpedos at Prinz.

"Yeah! We got her now!" Suffolk said cheerfully.

"Finish her off!" Prince of Wales said as she raised her sword in the air.

Prinz's tactic has now backfired. She desperately tried to evade their gunfire, but her evasion was near useless and couldn't do anything but take the hits. She tried to aim her cannons at the twins, but the impact of their bullets were causing her to flinch too much, making her miss her shots.

Eugen continued to grunt heavily as she continued to receive the many blows from Suffolk and Norfolk. looking like she was about to give out, Bismarck knew she had to step in, in order to save her friend. She took a deep breath and yelled on the top of her lungs amongst the long banging of bullets.

**"EUGEN, MOVE!"**

Eugen was startled by Bismarck suddenly raising her voice. She then raised her hand to materialize three shields as she slowly moved behind Bismarck. Eugen was breathing heavily while laying on top of her rig exhausted with the look of humiliation on her face. She frowned at the thought that she was overpowered.

Suffolk and Norfolk stopped firing their guns as they noticed Bismarck slowly moving forward towards them. They looked shocked and didn't know what to do.

"Come on you two, let's finish the job, target Bismarck!" Hood yelled as she readied her guns.

"Of course!" Suffolk said, preparing to provide supporting fire.

Norfolk was right next to her. "So will I!" she said with determination in her eyes.

They fired their guns at Bismarck, sending barrage after barrage of cannon fire and torpedos at her. Hood and Prince of Wales aimed and fired their cannons upon their target.

Bismarck stood there, taking every hit the county twins threw at her. She then looked up into the sky as she caught a glimpse of the large bullets flying through the air, heading straight towards her. They exploded on impact on Bismarck, but she didn't flinch from such massive blows. She then briefly looked behind herself towards Prinz Eugen who was still breathing heavily from the injuries before fixing her gaze on Hood. amongst the gunfire, Bismarck aimed her guns and yelled as loud as she could in a booming voice.

**"The pride of the Royal Navy... Ends Here!"**

Before Suffolk and Norfolk could realize that they weren't doing anything to this ship, a loud and ear-shattering boom erupted from one of Bismarck's guns. It was too fast to be seen, and it exploded when it made contact with Hood. The elegant shipgirl collapsed backwards instantly.

_"Hood!"_ Prince of Wales shouted, catching Hood from sinking. The sound of Prince of Wales yelling made Suffolk and Norfolk stop firing and turned their attention towards Hood.

Hood clutched her chest, breathing heavily. "Ah... This power..." she coughed loudly. "...Extraordinary... Incredible that you've found this strength..."

Hood then lost consciousness. Prince of Wales tried to shake her awake, but failed. She then activated the radio on her rig.

"HQ, this is Prince of Wales!" she shouted desperately.

The voice of Z23 came on the other end of the radio. "This is Command. We've been attempting to-"

Prince of Wales interrupted her. "There's no time for that!" she shouted desperately. "Hood is down! I say again, **Hood is down, over!**"

A few seconds of silence followed. "Acknowledged. What about the new Ironblood battleship?"

"She was the one who took down Hood!" Wales shouted into her microphone. Silence followed again.

"...I see." Zed replied stoically. "The Commander has been standing by and is currently listening - he has given you the order to retreat back to base, over."

"Very well. Prince of Wales, Suffolk and Norfolk performing tactical retreat, out!"

After the infamous radio crackle signified the end of the transmission, Prince of Wales called out to Suffolk and Norfolk.

"You two! Give me a hand in carrying her!" she shouted with pure desperation in her voice.

Needless to say, the two quickly skated over. Suffolk grabbed a hold on Hood's legs, while Norfolk helped Wales by grabbing the other free arm. Together, the three began their journey back to base... hopefully, with enough time to spare to get Hood medical assistance.

-Bismarck's PoV-

🎵Metal Gear Rising: Revenge with a Vengeance🎵

Bismarck stood there with a serious expression. She was breathing somewhat heavily from her injuries, but held them back in an effort to show her dominance over the situation. She watched as her foes carried away their injured ally before looking over to Prinz Eugen.

"Eugen, we've been found out. It's time to retreat." Bismarck said, looking back as their enemies tended to Hood. She felt guilty that she had to do it... but she had no choice.

"Yes, let's... go now... *cough*... we need repairs..." Prinz Eugen says as she continues to breathe heavily. Bismarck lended Eugen a shoulder, feeling her friend's body breathing heavily.

"*Cough*... see you again... *Cough*... **Little sheep**..." Eugen said in an aggressive tone as the two slowly skate away and into the fog.

At one point, Ironblood were once great allies to the Azur Lane alliance but they chose a different path. Eventually, their differences in beliefs tore them apart and sparked the second great war. With the shared ideology of another once former ally of the alliance, the Sakura Empire and Ironblood forged a new alliance known as the Crimson Axis. Together, they would conquer the world and become the dominant power. Through power and strength, they would bring peace to humanity.

Bismarck would walk away from this fight knowing that one day when those who looked back on this day would be able to understand who is right and who is wrong. She never knew of Ironblood's former alliance, but Bismarck knows that today, she fought for her friend and that's all that mattered to her.

Maybe one day, she would reunite with Azur Lane as allies, But for now...

**...they were enemies.**

.

..

...

* * *

-No PoV-

An unknown person was currently watching as the two Ironblood ships were escaping the area. On a nearby island, was where two men were. Once they had left the area, the man then noticed another unidentified ship was also there, but it quickly left before he could get a detailed look at it. Turning around, he walked back over to another person, who was currently eating some fruit.

"Hey, mate."

The first unknown man addressed the other guy with a British accent. The second person got up, finishing off the last of his fruit.

"Yeah?" the second person responded, also in a much heavier British accent.

The first person pointed behind him. "Did you watch those fireworks go down?"

The second person shrugged. "How could I not, mate? Area was lit so bright that I coulda' sworn we were being bombarded by mortars."

"You said it best." the first person responded. "Hey... you reckon there's others besides us?"

The second person took a 180-degree look at their surroundings. He then replied. "Probably. Maybe we should go look for 'em, instead of rottin' away on this island."

The first person smirked.

"My thoughts exactly."

* * *

**And thus ends Chapter 2. Tell us what you think about this chapter - I personally would love to hear your reviews. **


	4. Chapter 3: Hood's Condition

_Sorry we kept you waiting. We had to take a while off for personal reasons. But before you continue to read, I'd like to say that **Armored Raven** has joined us as an editor/partial writer. We wrote a long chapter... again. Also, many thanks for the still overwhelming support you show us. I personally encourage you all leave reviews still - reading them is quite the good motivator._

_the optional soundtrack: __/playlist?list=PLfUttKNcUeSbjeMmG9z98WlI5VDId3X0P_

_Also, we have had a title change. Neither of us liked the previous one, so we have made a new one._

* * *

_**-Chapter 3: Act 1-**_

_-Javelin's Perspective-_

🎵 Halo 3 ODST - Overture 🎵

The next morning at 06:00 hours, the young royal navy ship sat on the edge of the docks, staring out over the ocean. She was wearing her usual outfit this morning; a white dress with a blue scarf that had animal ears and a blue plaid skirt. Watching the early hours of the sky was something that had become a habit for her; beneath her cheery exterior was a girl who enjoyed sentimental things like this.

And it also included watching her fellow shipgirls return from an overnight and/or 24 hour commission. While she wasn't looking, someone approached her from behind.

"Good morning Javelin." Z23 said in a grieven tone as she sat down beside her looking down at the waters. Javelin looked over to her side at Z23 and smiled.

"Ah, Zed-chan. Morning!"

Z23 sat down next to Javelin. "Good morning, Javelin. May I join you today?"

"Huh?" Javelin looked over to her friend. "Why?"

"Because... I wanted to watch the ocean waves today."

"Oh, Okay!" Javelin smiled at her friend. "Anything you want to talk about?"

Z23 sighed. "Actually..." she looked down at the waves with a sad expression.

"Uh, Zed-chan?" Javelin looked at Z23 with concern. "What's the matter?"

Z23 didn't respond, instead looking down towards the water with a solemn expression. This only made Javelin want to probe her for answers even more. She scooted over closer to Z23, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Huh!?" Z23 nearly jumped into the very water she was staring at.

"Ah! Sorry, Zed!" Javelin frantically waved her hands in front of her chest. "I was just trying to cheer you up!"

Z23's pupils dilated at Javelin's words. She then looked back to the water, wearing the same expression that she had a few seconds ago. Once again, Javelin put her hand on Z23's shoulder, who didn't flinch this time.

Javelin looked her friend in the eyes from the side. "You know you can talk to me about your problems, right? You don't have to lock those bad feelings inside you."

Z23 looked up from the water, but didn't meet Javelin in the eyes. However, she did speak.

"...Fair enough."

Javelin smiled. "Of course! I'm here for you anytime you need me, Zed-chan! That's what friends are for!"

Javelin's natural personality was completely showing now. She really did want to help her friend; Zed has been looking pretty down-in-the-dumps lately, so she wanted to see what was wrong. Even though they had been friends for over a few months since Z23 joined Azur Lane, she never seemed too open to small talk.

Especially since yesterday.

"Yesterday, Hood came back in critical condition." Z23 uttered quietly.

Javelin's eyebrows raised up, and then a look of sheer horror appeared on her face. "Lady... Hood?"

"That's right." Z23 said, flatly but with emotion. "She was hit by new Ironblood ammunition, directly in the chest. Norfolk and Suffolk came back to the base with a worrying amount of blood soaking her uniform. The Commander called for medical attention, but the new person also joined upon _extreme _insistence."

"You mean Snake?" Javelin asked, still very concerned.

Z23 nodded her head. "Snake found out shortly after he awoke, while he was passing through the dorm hallways. He ran over to the Commander's office, insisting that he evaluate Hood. The Commander initially protested, but then Snake said that he was a certified and experienced combat medic back in his world. He helped some of our medical staff stabilize Hood... but she's in a coma."

Javelin looked at her friend with a look of despair. "Will she wake up...?"

Z23 smiled for the first time. "Yeah. She'll be fine, but the wound caused severe blood loss. Vestal is currently considering giving her a blood transfusion in the hope that it might wake her up sooner. Snake said he will assist Vestal until Hood gets better."

Javelin sighed an incredibly deep sigh of relief. "Thank goodness~! I'll be sure to visit her every day!"

"Of course." Z23 smiled towards Javelin. "We've already got many who want to wish her luck in person, so The Commander is currently creating a schedule of when people can visit her."

Javelin smiled. She turned back to watch the sun tint the sky a nice shade of purple and orange. Z23 did the same.

The dawn sky was a pretty sight. They stared at the sky for several minutes in silence, just watching the sun slowly rise as they felt the sea breeze on their skins. But eventually, Javelin got tired of the silence.

"Hey, Zed-chan."

Z23 ever-so-slight turned her head. "Yeah?"

"Want to hear about what Her Majesty did yesterday?" Javelin asked.

Z23 shrugged. "Very well. I have a good amount of time before I have to do some secretary work for the day."

Javelin's smile widened even more, so much so she stood up and started spilling information onto Z23.

"We did a lot of fun things yesterday!" she said out of pure excitement. "We went to the beach and made sand castles, we then went out to buy some clothes, watched the offshore exercises that Hornet and a few recruits participated in, and I even got to go into her dorm! It was so large and roomy~!"

The words that came out of Javelin's mouth made her smile a little bit. Javelin's cheerful attitude always seemed to cheer Z23 up. Z23 was silent for a few moments, but slowly the smile on her faded. She looked at Javelin and spoke.

"It seems like you had a lot of fun with Queen Elizibeth, it reminds me of the good times..." She went silent once again before uttering these words grimly; "... _before Ironblood declared war on Azur Lane._"

Javelin's smile disappeared for a brief moment to take into account the words that Z23 said. Before she could reply, though, Javelin noticed a ship and a few figures slowly moving towards the dock on the horizon. Her attention immediately shifted and her smile reappeared on her face.

"They're back!" Javelin said loudy. "They came back from their mission!"

Z23 looked up at Javelin who was practically jumping around in celebration. She then looked over and noticed a ship and a few figures heading in their direction.

"Oh, they've returned." Z23 said in surprise.

Javelin stopped jumping and looked at Z23 with sparkles in her eyes "Yes, we gotta go tell the others!" She then turned around and ran towards the base "I will go alert the Queen and the Commander!"

_-Z23's Perspective-_

Z23 watched Javelin sprint across the docks and onto the main pathway that led to the heart of the base. She then turned around and continued to look out over the oceans. Reflecting on the months in which she was in Azur Lane before looking back on her time in Ironblood. She was considered an Elite ship, being one of the few Zerstroers that gained a significant amount of respect in the fleet. Despite this, she always remained reserved in her social skills.

Z23 was amongst the few ships in Ironblood that defected to Azur Lane. It deeply bothered her to see a once former ally become an enemy. Among them was her own sister, Z25. She was one of the few who she told was defecting, and she helped Z23 escape her Ironblood base.

However, she never got a chance to say goodbye to her.

"I miss my old friends..." She quietly said to herself, "...if only we all got along... there would be no war."

She missed her old friends dearly. That didn't mean that she didn't like her current ones - especially Javelin - but she definitely missed people like the other Z-ships. She was even more sad that they were now her enemy, and her friends would be the very people she fought now.

_It's a shame she had seen it coming._

**15 minutes later...**

Javelin just returned to the dock with a large group of girls, along with Queen Elizabeth.

"Make room for the queen!" Elizabeth barked, "I cannot see over you all!"

The crowd of girls splitted off into two groups as Queen Elizabeth moved through the divide. Javelin trailed off behind her. The sound of the crowd of girls alerted Z23 from her deep self reflection. She turned around to see a crowd of girls with Queen Elizbeth and Javelin in front of the pack on a different platform of the docks. Javelin was looking in her general direction, signaling to her to come over to the group.

"Z23, come over here! They are almost here!" Javelin shouted over the crowd. Z23 immediately stood up and ran over to the crowd of girls, squeezing her way through the crowd and into the front with Javelin and Queen Elizabeth.

Everyone watched in anticipation as the ship slowly moved closer with the humanoid figures coming into greater view. One of them was a blonde haired girl wearing an older English military uniform and holding a sword in her right hand. The 2nd and 3rd appeared to be identical in appearance; they were both young, had twin long tails, but one has brown hair and a red dress while the other black hair and a purple dress. The 4th girl had short brown hair that wore a navy blue hoodie with lime green accents, her stomach exposed as well and had black thigh highs. And the 5th was a mature looking woman with long white hair with a black coat over a white dress.

"We have returned!" The short brown haired girl yelled with glee.

The crowd of girls cheered as the ship fully docked. five girls walked onto the docks to greet the crowd.

"Ah... Javelin."

The woman with long, white hair walked over to Javelin. Javelin smiled as she watched her approach.

"Welcome back, Miss Yorktown!" she greeted Yorktown with gusto.

Yorktown returned the smile, although not with as much energy as Javelin. "Of course."

Yorktown walked over to the edge of the dock, watching the sun rise in the distance. The twins also approached them, the black-haired one speaking first.

"Where is The Commander?" she asked Z23.

"In his office." Z23 replied. "He is currently arranging some paperwork related to visitation hours for Hood."

"His office?" the black-haired girl asked.

Z23 frowned. "Yes. Hood is currently in intensive care for a battle injury sustained by an Ironblood ship."

The black-haired girl's eyes widened, "Oh. I see..." She then looked over at her sister who was carrying a stack of purple crates.

"Sis."

The brown-haired girl spoke up, finally breaking her silence. The black-haired girl looked over to her twin.

"Yeah, Ping Hai?"

The black-haired girl was met with a head pat by her twin sister. Ning Hai didn't flinch, though, instead smiling at her twin sister.

"...Thanks, Ping Hai."

The two shared a smile as they walked off towards the base. While they were walking, Ning Hai took one of the crates off of the stack that Ping Hai was carrying and carried it in both her hands. Javelin and Z23 just watched as they walked off. Out of the corner of her eye, Z23 saw a shade of yellow moving. She turned her head to see a girl with yellow hair approaching them.

Javelin's smile somehow widened even more. "Ah, it's Miss Warspite!"

Z23 watched Warspite approach them. She was carrying another crate, and her sword was sheathed in a scabbard at her side. Z23 didn't understand why she used a sword despite fighting from a distance, but she assumed that the sword had meaning to her. She opted to ask about this at a later date.

"Greetings, Javelin. Z23." Warspite said, stopping in front of them.

"Morning, Miss Warspite!" Javelin said. "Good morning, Warspite." Z23 also greeted her.

Warspite smiled at the two of them. "I see Javelin is ocean gazing as usual, but I'm not sure I have ever seen you joining her, Z23."

Z23 returned the smile. "It's a recent development. I've been feeling rather worn-out lately, and decided to join Javelin in her early morning activity in order to relax."

"Oh, really?" Warspite looked at Z23 with a sense of curiosity. "I would not have pictured that happening, I must say."

Z23 smiled a bit wider. "...I suppose neither would I."

Suddenly, a loud and high pitched voice called out to them from a distance away. Immediately, Z23 knew who it was.

"WAAAARSPIIITTEEE!~" the voice of Queen Elizabeth yelled loud enough to draw the attention of everyone in the crowd. Immediately, they parted way for her once again as she approached Warspite.

"Ah, not now, Your Highness." Warspite said strictly. "I have to deliver the spoils of our mission to the depot. Unless it is urgent business, I must make haste."

Queen Elizabeth didn't seem fazed. "In that case, I shall accompany you!"

"Very well." Warspite replied autonomously. With that brief exchange, the iconic duo left the area, having a conversation that Z23 couldn't make out from that distance. There was only one person left exiting the ship, who was also carrying a crate - however, it was marked with a "PRIORITY" sticker on it's side. Z23 was able to deduce that the crate either contained a highly sophisticated blueprint, a drill or a Wisdom Cube.

The girl walked briskly, seemingly unfazed by the weight of the crate. She, too, stopped to greet Javelin and Z23.

Z23 recognized the short brown haired girl with the navy blue and lime hoodie with polished ship rigging; her name was Baltimore, one of Eagle Union's top heavy cruisers. She is very outgoing and enthusiastic, not to mention she's got a great reputation amongst the other girls in the base. Many of them look up to Baltimore as a role model, including Z23 who so often follows her by example.

"Yo, Javelin! Oh, and you too, Zed."

""Morning."" Javelin and Z23 said in perfect sync.

Baltimore set down her crate, smiling brightly. "Good day to do some laps around the island, ain't it?"

Javelin nodded energetically. "It is! I was gonna go run around the base in a while."

"Heh. in that case, lemmie join you!" Baltimore replied with equal amounts of energy. "Me and Cleveland were gonna go have a nice jog around the base today. It'd be nice to have a third person with us!"

"Ah, alright!" Javelin replied, smiling _even wider._ Z23 was beginning to question the flexibility of Javelin's face, seeing how wide her smile currently was. However, Baltimore was one of the handful of people who could match her energy.

Z23 spoke up. "Tell Cleveland I said 'hello'."

"Of course!" Baltimore replied. She grabbed the crate with ease, and began walking off. "Alright, i'll see you two around!"

She left before Javelin or Z23 could say goodbye. With that, everyone except Yorktown had left.

"Pardon me girls, have you seen where Grim went?" Yorktown asked in question with little worry in her tone.

Before Z23 and Javelin could respond, the sound of a bird screeching catches their attention. The three look up to find a bald eagle soaring through the sky above.

"Oh my, there you are." Yorktown said with a smile.

The eagle then dived down and flew on past the three before landing on top of another girl's arm. Z23, Javelin and Yorktown look over to this girl who managed to walk onto the dock without them noticing. This girl, like Yorktown, had long white hair, but her attire was different. She had a black coat over an officer's uniform with a black skirt with black thigh highs and wore a naval officer hat upon her head. In her other hand, she held a bow that had some elements of an aircraft carrier's main mast. She looked at the eagle that landed on her sleeve and smiled before looking over to the three girls who were surprised by her sudden unexpected appearance.

"Enterprise... " Yorktown said in surprise, "I completely forgot you were still on the ship."

The girl faced the three's general direction before letting the eagle fly off onto Yorktown's shoulder.

"I guess they don't call me the Grey Ghost for nothing," Enterprise replied.

"Enty! Welcome back!" Javelin cheerfully greeted her.

Z23 was silent for a moment, before she could say her greeting, Enterprise walked up to her.

"Good morning, Z23." She said formally, "How was secretary duty?"

It hasn't been the first time she was assigned secretary duty, she in fact on several occasions served as the commander's secretary when one of them was absent. While trying to think of a way to explain her accomplishments, Z23 had a brief flashback of the events that happened yesterday. It practically haunted her mind, and she couldn't shake the thoughts of Hood returning unconscious. Not wanting to remain quiet any longer, Z23 decided to finally speak up.

🎵 Halo 3 ODST - Asphalt and Ablution🎵

"It was good... just the usual work." She said in a grieven tone.

Enterprise seemed like she couldn't tell there was sadness in Z23's voice, and instead simply replied,

"Very well." She nodded, turning around to walk over to pick up a suitcase that was set down on the floorboards of the dock. The bow in her hand disappeared with a flash and she walked past the three.

Yorktown looked down at Z23 who was making a face. Z23 couldn't pull off her usual poker face, as the incident from yesterday affected her _greatly_. Yorktown turned to look back at Enterprise, who was still walking away from the docks.

"Wait, Enterprise!" She shouted, "I think there is something wrong with Z23." Enterprise stopped in her tracks to look back at the three who were still standing at the docks. She then walked back over to them to see what was the matter with Z23.

"Are you okay Z23?" Enterprise asked, "What is bothering you?"

She was lost in thought about yesterday's events. Javelin looked over to nudge Z23, which snapped her back to reality.

"Go on, Zed. Tell her what happened." Javelin said, smiling reassuringly and pushing her forward.

Z23 took her time to come up with an answer. "It's about the scouting mission that the group of Royal Navy ships took part in."

Enterprise's eyebrow raised "What about the scouting mission?" She asked in a mildly considered tone?

"Hood... _S-She..._ " Z23 stuttered, the words catching in her throat.

"She returned... _unconscious_."

The words that came out of Z23's mouth made Enterprise gasp and her eyes widened with shock. So much so that she let the suitcase in her hand drop to the deck of the dock. The suitcase fell open, and out of it, a few glowing cubes rolled off the deck and into the water below it. She quickly turned around and started to sprint _full speed_ towards the base.

Yorktown seemed shaken by Z23's words. But it didn't have the same gravity on her compared to Enterprise. She kept her eyes fixed on Enterprise, as she ran onto the pavement and made her way into the heart of the base, until she was completely out of sight. Yorktown then looked down at Z23.

"What happened?" Yorktown asked in a more deeply concerning tone.

Z23 remained silent for a brief moment before quickly responding,

"It's... it's a long story..."

.

..

...

_**-Chapter 3, Act 2-**_

-_Enterprise's Perspective_-

Enterprise made a mad dash for The Commander's dormitory. Sprinting across the heart of the base, she attracted the attention of the girls walking about and minding their own business. Some attempted to give her a greeting, but she ignored them while the others gave her a confused look. Enterprise was determined to find out what happened to Hood and was not letting anything get in her way.

She barged through the front door of The Commander's Dormitory and dashed up the stairs. Enterprise's sudden entrance was so loud that it startled a girl who was reading a book while sitting down on a chair in the lobby. After a flight of stairs and a sprint down the hallway, she arrived at The Commander's office where she began banging on the door. The door was opened to reveal The Commander with an irritated face, until he saw who was knocking on his door.

"Oh... Enterprise, welcome back, how was-" Before The Commander got to finish his sentence, Enterprise quickly interrupted him.

"**Where is Hood?"** She demanded for an answer. His eyes slowly widened, but kept a straight face.

"She's in the Hospital unit, currently-" Before he could finish his sentence once _again_, Enterprise turned around and ran in the opposite direction away from his office.

She had a bad feeling about her current location, and Enterprise knew what to expect when she arrived there. Regardless, she had a hard time believing that Hood was the casualty of the scouting mission. She knew she was amongst the toughest Battleships in the Royal Navy, and her service had given her a legendary status amongst the ships in the Azur Lane Alliance. She was nicknamed "_The Mighty Hood,_" because of her service longevity, and her powerful cannons that wreaked havoc on every battlefield she sailed through. These thoughts continue to baffle her mind, and continue to question.

_Of all the ships in the fleet, how could Hood be the one to return in defeat?_

She ran down the flight of stairs until she finally made it to the main floor and rushed out the front door. Enterprise looked around the base to find where the Hospital wing was until her sights finally fixed in the general direction where it was located. She started to feel the fatigue catching up to her, as her breathing pattern was irregular with her heart beating fast with adrenaline. Despite this, Enterprise wasn't going to stop to catch her breath, she mustered up the last amounts of energy she had left in her and made a last dash towards the Hospital wing.

Finally reaching the front door of the hospital, she pushed the door open and rushed up towards the counter. The main lobby was quiet, with no sight of anyone else in the room. Catching her breath, Enterprise looked up on the desk and spotted a clipboard with writing on it. She took a glance at the writing and realized it was a list of the patients that are currently being hospitalized. She skimmed through the list until Hood appeared on the list.

_Room H15 _

She took a mental note of this before setting the clipboard back down on the desk and rushing towards the side of the lobby where the elevators were. To her dismay, there was a note on both elevator doors with an "_Out of order" _message on it. Enterprise then looked around for the stairs and rushed to them. She looked up the flight of stairs, it was long and it practically seemed to stretch on forever with her dazed vision thanks to exhaustion slowly consuming her mind. She ran up the stairs until she finally arrived at a level labored "_H_" before entering through the door.

Enterprise scanned through all the rooms while she rushed down the hall until she arrived at the room that was labeled _H15. _She felt relieved that she arrived at the room Hood was being hospitalized in, taking a deep breath before slowly walking in.

In the hospital room, a nurse was behind a curtain, examining a medicine bottle. She was wearing a black, skin tight nun uniform with white thigh highs and a large cape. She had a sailor hat on as well.

"Vestal?" Enterprise asked in question while breathing heavily.

The women looked up from the table and saw Enterprise leaning up against the wall, gasping for air.

"Oh my... Enterprise are you okay?" Vestal asked with a concerned expression on her face.

Enterprise took a few deep breaths before speaking "Yes... I'm fine..."

Enterprise was extremely exhausted from the intensive sprints she did on her journey here. She was sweating heavily, her mouth was dry and her heart felt like it was beating against the bones in her body. Vestal set down the medicine bottle she held in her hand on the table nearby the hospital bed and quickly walked over to Enterprise, putting a hand on her back.

"Did you run all the way here?" Vestal asked.

"Yes..." Enterprise said while still breathing heavily.

Vestal then grabbed her arm and guided her to a seat in the corner of the room. "It isn't healthy to run a long distance without proper hydration," Vestal said as she walked over to the sink.

She pulled out a cup from the cabinet above the sink and turned the faucet to fill the cup up with water. She walked back over to Enterprise and handed her the cup, who immediately grabbed it.

"Thank you... " Enterprise said as she quickly downed the entire cup.

"You're welcome." Vestal said with a smile. After a few moments, she walked back over behind the curtains to the table near the hospital bed.

"So Enterprise, when did you get back?"

"Earlier... this morning at... 07:45 hours..." Enterprise said while heavily breathing, slowly starting to stabilize.

"Oh, so you have _just arrived_ then?" Vestal asked in question as she looked over at Enterprise.

Enterprise, slowly trying to relax her breathing rate, nodded her head.

"Ahh... In that case, welcome back Enterprise," Vestal said while pouring some liquid from a medicine bottle into a small cup." Enterprise took a few deep breaths before replying.

"**...Thank you."** She said sincerely.

She watched behind the curtain, watching Vestal's shadow moving close to a figure in bed while holding a small tiny cup. Enterprise, remembering why she ran over here, got up and slowly walked close to the curtain.

She took a couple more breaths before speaking, "Vestal, I came to see Hood..."

Vestal replied, "Huh? Oh... hold on, let me administer some medicine into her real quick."

Enterprise watched the silhouette of Vestal from behind the curtain, seeing her slowly pour liquid into the mouth of the individual who was laying in the hospital bed. Not wanting to wait any longer, she pulled back the curtains, revealing Vestal and Hood who was laying in the bed with her eyes closed.

Her eyes slowly widened; Hood looked lifeless in the bed, with her skin seemingly more pale than normal. Enterprise's stare redirected towards the center of her chest. It was covered in white bandages that were stained with blood. The sight shocked her, sending a wave of dread into her mind. She was horrified... one of the figureheads of Azur Lane, laying in bed in a critical condition from the actions of a faction that - until a few weeks ago - was an ally of theirs. She clenched her fist in anger, but released it in sorrow just a few seconds later in tandem with a sigh. Abruptly, a bright flash came from behind the blinds in the window, followed by a loud bang a few seconds later.

🎵 Halo 3 ODST - Deference for Darkness🎵 ﾠ

Enterprise immediately tensed up, but the sound of rain soon followed, further dimming the mood in the room. The pattering of raindrops on the windows both relaxed Enterprise and soured her mood... of all the moments for it to rain, _it had to be now...? _ it's sudden appearance felt like a coincidence, but all it did was simply make her feel worse just by its mere presence.

"_What happened to her?" _Enterprise asked Vestal grimmly. Vestal took a few moments to think of a way to explain to her what happened. After a moment of silence, she finally spoke.

"I was told that she was shot by artillery fire from an Ironblood battleship." Enterprise's face suddenly grew serious from hearing Vestal's words.

"_**Who**_ **shot her?**" Enterprise said with anger lingering in the tone of her voice.

"I don't know who. I was too busy with getting her situated here while trying to stop the bleeding coming from her wound." Vestal replied in a solemn tone. Enterprise was pondering ideas on who from Ironblood could have caused this wound. She had a sinking feeling it was Ironblood's strongest battleship in their fleet, _**Bismarck**_.

Her thoughts made her more angry, as she balled both her hands into fists. Enterprise was already angry at Ironblood's betrayal and declaration of war from months ago, but seeing a close ally lying unconscious in a hospital bed made her want to annihilate an entire fleet of ships. Vestal, seeing the anger in Enterprise's eyes, made her feel worried. She saw the fury that was continuously building up from Enterprise, she looked like she was about to punch a hole in the wall. Not wanting to see her angry any longer, she spoke up.

"Enty…" She began chastising Enterprise. "I understand you are angry, but it would be best if you restrain it."

"I don't think I could do that Vestal…" Enterprise said with metaphorical smoke coming out of her nose. Her bow materialized in her right hand.

"Whoever I find is responsible for Hood's demise..." She pulled back the blinds and pulled back her bow, a bright glowing bolt appeared while drawing it back, pointing it at the ocean.

**"****_I will wipe them off the face of the ocean!_****"**

Seeing her rage escalating too far, Vestal decided to take swift action and end Enterprise's anger spree before she would cause unnecessary harm to others.

"Enterprise stop! _Get a hold of yourself!_" Vestal said loudly in a more serious tone.

Enterprise, hearing the boom of her friend's words, made her snap out of her blind rage. Her eyes widened at realizing what she was doing. Enterprise then felt a hand on her back, making her look over to see Vestal with a concerned look on her face.

"Please..." Vestal said in a lower tone.

Enterprise, realizing she was about to launch a shot into the ocean, slowly pulled the bolt back down, causing it to disappear with a bright flash. She lowered her bow and faced Vestal.

"I'm sorry Vestal. Normally, I don't let anger blind my better judgement." She sat down in a chair near the window, her bow then disappeared from her hand. She glanced outside the window, sighing at the bitter atmosphere surrounding them. Enterprise took a few moments to let the silence between them and the dripping sound of rain drops, sink in before speaking.

"Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where I cannot suppress it.." She said grimmly in a low tone.

"Ironbloods' Betrayal still leaves me afflicted to this day… and finding out Hood was defeated at the hands of an Ironblood ship fills me with dread."

Vestal walked over and sat down next to Enterprise in a chair next to hers. She took a brief moment to take in the quiet and still atmosphere around them, she then looked over at her friend and broke the silence.

"I understand why you feel great distress earlier... but I now understand why you let your anger slip away from you." Vestal looked straight into Enterprise's eyes. "We are at war with them. That being said, there will be casualties on both sides… yesterday, one of our greatest allies has fallen… thankfully, the tide didn't take her with it."

She briefly looks over a Hood before looking back at Enterprise. "She fought for the sake of not just our countries, but our friends… the same can be said for Ironblood… It is the nature of war. The best we can do is heal our wounds and keep fighting."

Vestal's consulting made Enterprise feel less gloomy over the situation. She then stood up from her chair and began to speak with her usual stoic attitude.

"War is full of hardships… victories and defeats, We will not let Hood's sacrifice be in vain. We will avenge her and show the Crimson Axis that they woken the sleeping giant!" Vestal's eyes widen at Enterprise's words.

"My, I wasn't expecting you to quickly recover." Vestal said with a smile on her face.

Enterprise smiled back at Vestal. "You always know how to make me feel better."

"I am a repair ship afterall." Vestal said cheerfully.

Enterprise looked over at Hood, realizing her skin color was paler than normal, she decided to bring up the topic of Hood's current condition.

"Vestal, Hood seems more pale than normal." Vestal got up from her chair and walked over besides Enterprise.

"She lost _a lot_ of blood while the other ships were carrying her back, I am considering performing a blood transfusion once the order of donor blood arrives."

Enterprise raised an eyebrow "How much blood are you talking?"

"_Too much,_ Enterprise…" Vestal replied, "So much that we had to rush everything in order to get her situated into her room. Thankfully, someone new who joined today decided to pinch in and help us."

_Someone new? _Enterprise thought to herself; the words seemed almost alien to her. She knows that the Azur Lane alliance was entirely composed of other humanoid ships, with The Commander being the only true human on the base. They rarely get any new ships added to their fleet and never have had any other human as active personnel on the base. This news surprised Enterprise.

"Yes, he insisted on helping despite being greatly deprived of sleep," Vestal replied.

This news surprises her even more. Another man helped render medical aid to Hood? She never saw another man walk about on the base, let alone assist Vestal in providing medical attention. Enterprise almost didn't believe her words until she lifted up a clipboard she was looking at. She didn't recognize the handwriting on it.

"Hmm… another man huh? Who is this individual that helped you with giving Hood medical attention?" Enterprise asked skeptically.

Vestal looked up from her clipboard and looked Enterprise, "Oh… I never got his name as he never told me what his name was. He was rather quiet for the most part during the procedures, but very efficient in what he was doing. He has medical training."

Enterprise eyes widened, "Well, where is he now?"

Vestal smiled, "Most likely still asleep."

.

..

…

* * *

_-Snake's PoV-_

🎵No Music🎵

"Hmmggh..."

Snake grumbled, getting out of his mattress. It wasn't particularly comfortable, but it was definitely better than his old bunk bed in Mother Base. He preferred to be at least somewhat on common ground with his soldiers, and it was his personal quarters that was part of that choice. Though nowadays, he didn't have Mother Base anymore.

But that would change very soon.

Snake groggily got out of his mattress. He rotated his neck in a circle, the joints cracking as he did so. Brushing his clothes off for no reason, he walked over to a nearby sink. Next to it was a digital clock... but he couldn't make out the numbers on it due to blurry vision.

***BANG***

Immediately Snake turned around to see a gun pointed at his wall, smoke coming out of it's barrel. It was being held by a girl wearing a black maid uniform. She had short, light blonde braided hair that gave the illusion of being pink due to the sunlight, and yellow eyes that shined like gemstones.

"Ah, it seems I was too late."

The unknown girl twirled her handgun around in a few circles, holstering it rather quickly. The way she spun her gun like that reminded him of Ocelot. After concealing her gun, she spoke again.

"It is time to wake up, Mr. Snake." She said in a low, cold tone of voice. "It is currently 11:00AM. Ms. Belfast wanted me to wake you, as she is preoccupied with other duties."

Snake grumbled. "...Did you have to use a gun for that...?" he said in a grizzly voice.

The girl smiled slightly. "Of course. A sidearm is a most valuable asset of a maid. Now, since you're awake, I shall lead you to the mess hall. Two girls in particular wish to have a word with you."

Two girls? Did he mean Cleveland and Rodney? Or perhaps Suffolk and Norfolk?

"Right this way, Mr. Snake."

The maid exited the room, and Snake had a few seconds to grab his eyepatch from his bedside and left the room with her. As they walked through the dorm, it was surprisingly lively throughout the building. There were a good number of the girls present in the dorm, and most of them greeted him or at least acknowledged his presence positively. Snake internally wondered if they had heard about him assisting Hood, and if that had changed their collective opinion of him.

🎵Destiny 2 - The Farm🎵

As they exited the dorm, Snake's eyes began watering up and he sneezed shortly after. Hearing this, the girl stopped and looked back at him.

"Ah, it seems the pollen is particularly bad today. I will hasten my pace accordingly."

The girl continued to walk, but started to speed-walk rather than strolling. As they continued down the path of bright pink trees, they were alone - well, with the exception of one girl. They passed a young girl with silver twin tails who was sitting on a bench, seemingly asleep and with... _A bottle of alcohol?_ Snake wanted to say something about that, but he didn't have much to talk about right here. He would have to bring this up to The Commander later.

Eventually, they arrived at a large building a short distance away from the plaza, separated away from the cluster of buildings. Many girls were currently entering or exiting the doors, all of them talking to another. Once again, as Snake approached the doors, they all noticed him one way or another. One even gave him a warm smile. Right as he stepped foot into the large building, the smell of food hit him like a truck. That wasn't a bad thing, but after not having smelled anything in particular for a while now, a strong smell briefly threw him for a loop.

"Mr. Snake." The girl tapped him on the shoulder. "Queen Elizabeth and Ms. Warspite wish to have a discussion with you."

Queen Elizabeth? Warspite? Was the queen of England present at this base? Snake had so many questions, but his internal defense mechanism for the overwhelming quantity of questions kicked in and he just decided to roll with it. The maid led him to the front of the area, both of them grabbing a tray. On it was an impressively good smelling curry. Snake couldn't complain; curry was one of the simpler meals to make, and it made for a very good food to be distributed to a lot of people. He briefly recalled an implanted memory of the Carribean Mother Base's cafeteria, and how it used to serve curry as well.

"Beverages are over here, Mr. Snake."

Snake redirected his vision to a nearby cluster of fridges. He opened the door of one, grabbing what seemed to be a glass of Coca-Cola out of it. He put down the tray on a nearby surface, placing the bottle cap on the edge. He tilted the glass bottle forward, and with a little arm grease the metal cap came off. He brought the bottle to his lips, taking a sip.

"...!?"

Snake made a horrified grunt, spitting out the cola at lightning speed. That was not cola! He quickly took a look at the label on the bottle... _That was Oxidants in the __form_ _of soda!_ Snake was glad that he ejected that out of his system fast enough... but it also made him wonder; were these girls human after all, or some other biological life form? Most of them had these bottles on their tray, drinking them with no hesitation.

"Ah..."

Snake turned back to see the maid with a look of regret on her face. "My apologies, Mr. Snake. I had briefly assumed that you were similar to us, and had the mistaken assumption that you could drink Oxi-Cola. Do not worry, it will not damage your system since you were quick to dispose of it."

Snake grumbled, but shrugged after. "It's fine, just the daily mistake." he said, grabbing the tray and stealthily disposing of the Oxi-Cola.

The maid led him to a table seated with two girls who had long, yellow hair. One of them was being very loud, while the other one was quietly eating. As the maid approached the table, the one with brighter hair noticed them and spoke up,

"Your majesty, they are here."

The other girl stopped what she was doing, and frantically looked around. When she saw Snake carrying his tray, she began smiling widely.

"Ah, so he is!" she said. "You may have a seat at this table, Mr. Snake. Sheffield, you may as well."

So her name was Sheffield, huh... the maid wordlessly grabbed a nearby chair from an empty table, and dragged it to their own table. As Snake took a seat, the girl with a crown on her head stood up, putting her arms on her hip.

"Greetings, I am Queen Elizabeth, the super-dreadnought of the Royal Navy! This is Warspite, my trusty ally!"

The other girl smiled humbly. "Her Majesty wished to personally meet you when she was made aware of your action in tending to Hood."

Queen Elizabeth smiled with pride. "Indeed! Hood is an important figure to us all, including myself..." she said in a more genuine and lower tone. "...So I wanted to give my personal thanks to you for helping stabilize her. Those of us who knew about Hood's condition were in bad morale until news came that you had assisted Vestal, and were quite good at it."

Warspite followed up on Queen Elizabeth's words. "On behalf of all Royal Navy ships, and mostly everyone else on our base... we thank you, Mr. Snake."

Snake was silent for a few moments, but he closed his eye and smiled. "Of course. A soldier looks out for their own, right?"

Queen Elizabeth sat back down, also smiling. "I knew I'd take quite the liking to you!"

After she said that, she immediately tore into her food. Snake watched her as she almost _drank_ the curry. Watching her eat it with such vigor made him hungry as well, and he began eating his curry at a pace where he could enjoy it. Warspite and Sheffield began eating slowly. Snake noticing they were eating with proper table manners.

Suddenly, everyone around him turned to face someone who just entered the mess hall. The room fell silent for a moment, Snake began hearing footsteps approaching him. With his spoon still in his mouth, he turned to see who was nearing his group.

"There... you are!"

A girl with long silver hair and an officer's uniform was currently standing in front of them, gasping for breath. The other girls around him took notice, and quieted down for a moment. It was extremely brief, though, as everyone returned back to their conversations after.

'Ah, Ms. Enterprise!" Queen Elizabeth remarked. "What brings you to our _grand _table?"

"...It's... to find... that man..." Enterprise said, still trying to catch her breath.

Warspite got up from her table. "My, Ms. Enterprise. You should be taking a seat. You must have ran a good distance, no?"

Warspite grabbed another chair from a nearby table. Enterprise took it, and sat down between Warspite and Sheffield. Meanwhile, Snake continued eating - albeit slower. But that's when Enterprise began speaking directly to him.

"You. You must be Snake, right?"

Snake finished off his curry right as she said that. He took a few moments to respond. "Yeah. Did you need me for anything?"

Enterprise shook her head "No. I just merely wanted to see the man who helped Hood."

Queen Elizabeth gave Snake a smile, revealing a single fang on the top left side of her mouth. "My my, Snake! It seems you've become quite a celebrity amongst us! You've even managed to catch the attention of Ms. Enterprise!"

Snake gave her a skeptical look. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Not at all!" Queen Elizabeth responded immediately. "I'd argue that it's _good!_ Ms. Enterprise is one of the highest shipgirls amongst us. She is one of 5 secretaries The Commander employs, so she has quite a bit of authority."

"Hold that thought."

Snake got up out of his chair, grabbing his tray. He went over to a nearby return bin, emptying the bowl and spoon into it and placing the tray on top of it. He returned back to the table in mere seconds.

"Alright. What's this about a secretary?" he asked.

Queen Elizabeth smiled again, but Warspite was the one to respond instead.

"The Secretaries are under direct order of The Commander. They assist him in various different tasks. Each of them has a specific duty allocated to them, such as Z23 being our radio operator. Enterprise is 2nd in command of our forces and handles logistics. Lady Belfast is another; she is sent around the base to perform order as needed by The Commander."

Snake listened dutifully. He then had a question. "Alright. So who's the other two?"

"Laffey and Javelin." Warspite answered. "You may have seen Laffey asleep on a bench in the Tree Aisle while you approached the cafeteria. Although she seems languorous and lazy, she is actually very diligent in her work. She handles the trivial paperwork and helps the Commander with managing the Depot. Javelin is in charge of handling Commissions and also brainstorming ideas that the Commander can reasonably put into action."

"Pretty organized operations you've got going on here." Snake remarked. "The Commander's got some good talent for someone so young."

Enterprise smiled faintly. "Indeed. Now then, I'd like to ask something of you, Snake."

Snake's eyebrows raised. "And what's that?"

"_**How bad is Hood's condition?**_"

Enterprise said those words with such seriousness, that it sent a chill down Snake's spine and also immediately shut up any conversations the other girls in the area were having. There was dead silence amongst the people at the table and soon the entire mess hall. Everyone directed their attention to Snake, and he felt intimidated... _Slightly._

"She'll be fine. I helped Vestal patch up her wound, and helped her administer morphine to ease Hood's pain. She'll likely need a blood transfusion, though. Whoever brought her in saved valuable seconds of her life, but she'll need the help of several others if she's gonna wake up in good time."

Enterprise seemed to loosen up a bit. Everyone else began speaking quietly amongst themselves. Snake was no stranger to giving news as it was, but the people's reaction to those news was far worse than the news themselves. Enterprise continued.

"...But will she survive?"

"I just said that she will." Snake responded. "But if you can get some people to donate blood to her, she'll wake up faster."

Enterprise sighed, seemingly carrying out a lot of stress. "Thank you. You've given me peace of mind. I'll be taking my leave now... tell Vestal my thanks if you see her again."

Snake quietly responded with a smile. Enterprise got up from her chair, and began walking off with her white hair streaming behind her. He then got up from the table, and took a breath of air in.

"I've had my grub, so I'm gonna go now. See you around."

"Of course!" Queen Elizabeth replied.

Warspite smiled at Snake, also speaking. "I will see you around as well."

"I will be around your personal quarters later today, Mr. Snake." Sheffield said. Snake just shrugged as he walked off...

_...now what to do until nighttime?..._ Snake internally asked himself. He then realized that he didn't have a day for himself for weeks. Even before he was transported to this world, he was committed to helping Big Boss build Outer Heaven. So much for that plan... but was that something Snake really wanted to do? After visiting this world, he realized that there was more to war then just conflict. All these girls were incredibly positive with each other, despite the fact that they were in the middle of a war. Snake had never seen people this positive before during a war.

Maybe Snake could still learn a thing or two. Maybe he _hadn't_ seen all aspects of war, like he thought he had. With that thought in mind, he made his way back to the dorms to have a day to himself. Come a few nights from now, it would be time for a plan he would put into motion.

The plan to reunite.

* * *

_**LINE BREAK - THE DOCUMENT MANAGER IS A NUISANCE - LINE BREAK**_

* * *

_**-Chapter 3, Act 3-**_

_-A Few Days Later-_

🎵No Music🎵

Snake was currently exiting the dorms. He was currently journeying towards the Commander's office to seek approval for a mission he was going to conduct today; retaking the oil rig. After spending a few days to himself, he was prepared to go on this mission easily.

The sound of his combat boots echoed in the hallway, the corridor lit brightly. It was quiet... of course, he was used to this by this point. He spent a few days in his room reading through an entire book. While he was reading, Snake hoped that his men were able to survive the harsh world. They had adequate training and then some, but training could only do so much before Mother Nature stopped caring. Eventually, he was in front of the large doors that The Commander's office was known for. As usual, Z23 was at the desk, typing on a device Snake had never seen before.

Snake entered the lobby, and knocked on the door to grab Z23's attention. She looked up. "Oh, greetings Mr. Snake. It is unusual for you to be here at this time."

Snake didn't respond visually. "I guess I can say the same for you. Every cog is needed for the machine, huh..."

"Um... I am not sure what you mean by that." Z23 replied, confusion both visible and audible in her reply.

Snake smirked. "It means that every soldier has their use." he replied as he walked over to her desk. "Is The Commander still working?"

Z23 folded the device on itself. "He is. Do you require a meeting with him?"

"No. I just need his approval for something." Snake responded. "I have a mission I need to go on."

Z23 grabbed the receiver from the nearby phone. "Very well." she dialed a number, pausing for several seconds. Finally, she spoke again. "Commander, Snake wishes to get your approval on a mission... no, I have not asked him what it is about... alright, I will ask him about it now."

She put a hand on the microphone. "He wants to know what you need approval for."

"Retaking the oil rig." Snake replied bluntly. "It's in enemy territory. Probably has a small token force occupying it, so I need to go scout it out."

"I see." Z23 autonomously replied. She uncovered the microphone. "He says that he wants to go capture the oil rig, and wishes to go on a scouting mission... yes, I will inform him." she ended the call. "He has given you his approval to go about with the mission."

Snake smiled at her, and turned to leave. Z23, however, called out to him.

"Wait."

Snake turned back to her. "Something else?"

Z23 got out of her chair, holding something in her hands. She walked over to him and held out her hand, revealing it to be a small microphone-and-speaker earpiece and a compass. "Here. You will need it to communicate with us."

Snake snickered briefly. "Don't know how I could forget that. Thanks, I'll keep you posted." he said, putting the earpiece on his left ear and pocketing the compass. Z23 gave him a nod, returning to her desk. Snake left the room. As he walked through the hallway, he switched on the earpiece. Somehow, it greeted him with an unpleasant, yet brief beeping sound that made Snake snarl in irritation. Following soon after was Z23's voice.

"Testing. How copy, over?"

Well, that was quick. "Solid copy. Mic test is successful, over."

"Acknowledged." Z23's voice responded. "The Commander is also listening, so he will account for any potential situation updates as needed. He has allocated a small boat for you in the harbour - it is marked with the identification numbers _12085_. It is equipped with one first aid kit. Update when you have reached the boat, out."

Snake exited the dorms to embrace the night breeze. It was early in the night, so the moon hadn't risen that far into the sky yet. Using nearby signs as help, he gradually made his way over to the harbor, which was very well lit with a few CCTV cameras around. Snake wandered around for a while, but eventually found the boat in question.

Entering the boat, he put a finger to the earpiece. "This is Snake. I have reached the boat, over."

"Acknowledged." the voice of Z23 curtly replied. "The boat should have adequate fuel for the mission. Objective is due 48 klicks northeast, we will be preparing a few ships for immediate deployment if needed."

"Copy that." Snake replied simply. "Wilco, am en-route to the designated objective, out."

After having that brief exchange, Snake turned around to face the twin engines. He grabbed both of their ignition cords and gave them both a mighty tug, the engines woke up immediately. They were surprisingly quiet - which meant that this boat probably was meant for stealth missions. Perfect.

He grabbed the steering arm, and opened the two motor's throttle to their max. The boat stood up and lurched forward at a surprising speed. Snake nearly stumbled over from the sudden movement of the boat. Closing the throttle a bit, he pulled out his compass... he was currently going south, so he took a left towards east, and circled around the island to head northeast.

.

..

...

🎵Call of Duty MW2 - The Satellite Compromised🎵

Over the course of the next half-hour, he kept the boat at sixty percent throttle as it skipped across the water. Partway through the journey, he thought he saw a glowing girl in the water... but he dismissed it as his mind playing tricks on him, as it quickly disappeared. The thought lingered in his mind briefly at the strange sight he saw, but quickly redirected his attention when he saw the ever-so-slightest glimpse of the oil rig in the distance, he immediately turned the boat back around in an attempt to gain some distance. Once he was roughly a minute away from the base, he began to send out another radio transmission.

'This is Snake. Time check, over."

"Roger." Z23. "Time is currently 22:22. Have you reached the base, over?"

"Affirmative. The Base is occupied by a token force... Lights on, posted soldiers and a searchlight is equipped on the base. Heading back to HQ to adequately prepare, out."

As soon as the brief transmission was over, he opened the throttle completely. He wanted to get back to base ASAP so he could get the preparation over with.

.

..

...

Another half hour later, and he had arrived back at HQ. While he was docking the boat, he spotted a girl standing on the dock. She had bright pink hair with pink eyes, and was holding a weirdly shaped staff with a long flag, draping in the wing in her left hand. As Snake docked the boat, the girl watched as he did so. When he stepped out the boat onto the pier, the girl came running over to him.

"Ah, your Snake right?" the girl asked.

"Yeah." Snake said, doing a few stretches to wake up his muscles. "Are you the person who was assigned to help me on this mission?"

The girl smiled brightly. "That's right!" she struck a pose. "I'm Lexington's little sister, Saratoga!"

Saratoga, huh... wasn't that the ship that stayed docked for most of World War 2? Snake was no history buff, but he did do some surface level research on the various armed conflicts throughout history. Even before he became Venom Snake, he enjoyed doing research anyways... perhaps that's the only thing he has in common with Big Boss that wasn't implaneted to be similar.

"Hey, Snake?" Saratoga's voice snapped him back to reality. "Don't space out just yet! We haven't even gotten to the trip yet~"

"Trip?" Snake asked autonomously.

"Yeah, the trip! Oh, by the way, Z23 wants you to hook that boat's engines into those nearby fuel line."

She pointed towards a large gas tank behind the boat. Snake took a few moments to plug the fuel nozzle into the boat's fuel tank, filling it up until his brain told him that the gas would overflow. Once he was done, Saratoga spoke again.

"Alright, with that out of the way... I will call in one of my planes!" Saratoga said energetically.

Snake looked at her dumbfounded. This girl was in command of an air fleet? He looked at her in shock; however, the girl in question noticed his look of shock, and smirked.

"Ah, I know what you're thinking - how can this girl be in command of an air fleet?"

_Wha-!? _How did this girl read his thoughts!?

"Well, the answer to that is this." Saratoga winked him. "I'm what is known as an Aircraft Carrier. Most of us are able to launch planes directly from our rigs during combat... although even I am I'm not sure how that works. But anyways~" She smiled with pride. "I've got a few planes of my own, and one of them _just so happens _to be a seaplane! The Commander gave me orders to lend you it, and a parachute as well."

Snake inspected her... well, she wasn't carrying the parachute.

"Ah, you're probably wondering where that parachute is!" Saratoga said, smiling brightly. "It's on the plane, which _should_ be here soon..."

Right on cue, Snake heard the sound of a plane approaching them. He looked behind him to see a seaplane coming in for a landing. He watched it approach.

"Oh, right on schedule!~" Saratoga said even more energetically.

The plane descended onto the water, making a loud sound and kicking up a lot of water in the process. It slowed down a lot, and taxi'd itself over to where Snake and Saratoga were currently standing, eventually shutting itself off - but that's when Snake noticed something _very_ odd...

**...Where is the pilot?**

"Oh, I just _know _you're gonna ask where the pilot is..." Saratoga said, now starting to creep Snake out with how telepathic she was. "Well, the answer is..." Sne winked again. "...That I have no answer!"

Snake blinked in confusion. "Come again?

Saratoga looked him straight in the eyes. "I said that it doesn't have a pilot. Every plane that we launch is on autopilot. We don't know how it works, we just know that that's how it functions~"

"Then how am I gonna get there?" Snake asked, now questioning even more how things worked around here.

"I'm gonna fly it, of course!" Saratoga replied immediately. "For some reason, the Commander wants us Aircraft Carrier ships to know how to fly, and insists that every Aircraft Carrier gets flying experience before she is sent to battle. Anyways, let's get going before we burn too much of the midnight oil!~"

Saratoga ran off towards the airplane. Snake had no choice but to follow her, impressed with the speed that this girl ran it. She was at the plane in only a few seconds, where it took Snake half a dozen to get there himself. As he approached, he watched her enter the plane's pilot seat. He opted to stop questioning the logic around here, and just accept that things were simply 'different' on this Earth.

The side sliding door of the plane opened as Snake stood next to the plane. Wordlessly, he got in the back. He spotted the parachute in the back seat, and immediately moved to put it on. However, before he did, Saratoga's voice came over an intercom.

"Just so you know, I'll be listening in on your radio channel with Commander and Zed. The Commander gave me orders to send you on a one way trip, but he also said he'll also send help immediately if you give the order!"

Snake noticed that Saratoga seemed to be struggling with the buttons on the console in the plane, looking as if she didn't know what she was doing. He felt compelled to ask her how much experience she has with flying.

"Excuse me!" He yelled over the loud propellers spinning, "Just much experience do you have with flying!?"

Saratoga stopped her frantic pressing of buttons and spoke over on the intercom. "Oh! I'd say a week's worth of training, and roughly an hour of flight time!"

_Only an hour? _He thought, sending worries of his spine. He was hoping his trip to the oil rig wouldn't end in him taking a swim in the ocean.

"Alright, here we go!~"

Snake just stayed silent as the cargo doors closed, anticipating himself to be jumbled to the floor. To his surprise, he felt the plane steadily accelerate on the water, until he felt that they were in the air. Snake, expecting a rough takeoff, looked up at Saratoga who seemed relaxed. She then spoke over the intercoms again.

"Now I know what you're thinking; how can someone with little to no experience pull off that smooth takeoff?" She said while smirking, a glint in her eye. "Well I lied! I have a large amount of experience when it comes to flying planes!" Saratoga said while trying to hold back her laughter. Snake felt somewhat relieved by her words, but still was on alert regardless.

"Bet I scared you didn't I?" Saratoga said with a huge smug on her face.

Snake decided to remain quiet before simply replying. "Pretty good." He said slightly

Saratoga giggled a bit more before speaking over the intercoms once again.

"We will arrive at the oil rig in about 30 mins, so sit back and relax!~"

Snake laid back into his chair, thinking about the whole operation that he was about to enact. He anticipated the resistance he would inevitably face at the base would be enough to keep him out for a few hours. He put on the parachute, sat in the red chair, and slowly closed his eyes.

.

..

...

* * *

x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x

* * *

...

"...Io... ck.."

...

"..Me in... S..ke..."

"**SNAKE!"**

🎵Call Of Duty MW2 - Infiltration🎵

The loud voice of Saratoga, amplified over the intercom woke Snake up. Saratoga looked back at Snake with disapproval.

"Come on Snake, you can't be slacking like that! We're almost at the base."

Snake shook his head, trying to disperse the drowsiness that was still taking ahold of him. He disabled his radio's mute feature, and spoke into it. "Yeah, my bad. After an hour of driving across the water round-trip, I needed a few moments of shuteye."

Saratoga smiled in response. "Anyways~, we're about 2,000 feet above sea level right now. From here, you'll be able to parachute onto that base. Now's probably a good time to start skydiving... what's your call?"

"I'll go." Snake replied over the radio. "Open the door for me, will you?"

Saratoga pressed a button on the dashboard in response, and the sidedoor slowly opened. The intense wind from outside hit him hard, but he stood his ground. He couldn't remember the last time he airdropped into a hotzone. He knew that Big Boss once skydived into Tselinoyarsk, but he _himself_ never did it. Although he had the necessary training, he never thought to have R&D build an airplane (or an airfield) to accommodate.

He mentally shuffled away this thought into his brain... he'd probably come back to this one eventually. Taking a few moments to prepare himself, he slowly stood in front of the door.

"Ah, don't be a scaredy cat~" Saratoga teased him over the intercom. "You're gonna have to get out of here one way or another."

She was right. With her words, Snake took a running start and leaped out of the plane. Immediately, wind currents hit him with tremendous force. The feeling immediately triggered his flight or fight response into its most intense, and the accompanying time dilation allowed him to take a look at the oil rig as he was dropping towards; there was a helipad on the top, and there didn't appear to be anyone manning that particular area, based off the lights that were illuminating it.

In addition, the spotlight wasn't pointed towards the sky, so the soldiers were nearly blind... though he didn't know if they were paying attention to the sound of the plane. With that realization in mind, he opted to pull the parachute last second instead of at the optimal time. He kept approaching the base. Fast... faster... _faster._

_Now._

Snake pulled the lever on his parachute. The sound of the fabric expanding into the air was quiet enough to not draw attention from the soldiers. With precision and focus, he landed dead center on the helipad. Quickly, he took off his parachute and hid behind a nearby HVAC unit. He checked from his left and right, and then stayed still for quite a few seconds. He listened closely for footsteps or radio chatter... alright, it's clear.. He then quickly folded up his parachute into the bag and hit it behind a few boxes.

"I've landed on the base, moving in to infiltrate." Snake said quietly over his radio.

"Strike Witch 3, I wish you luck, out." Saratoga replied.

🎵 Metal Gear Solid 2 - Big Shell Sneaking Theme🎵

Quickly, he crouched and cautiously walked around the area. After double checking the area, he then made a silent beeline straight for the roof access door. Snake put his ear against the wall, checking for chatter. Once again, he didn't hear anything, so he slowly opened the door. To his great luck, the door didn't creak while he carefully opened it. Snake slowly made his way down a flight of stairs, when he got to the bottommost floor, he surveyed his surroundings - there were no soldiers around again, so he toggled his radio.

"This is Snake. Base appears to be mostly empty, I have not encountered opposition yet, over."

"Acknowledged." the voice of Z23 replied. "According to spy planes, that base does not have any radio equipment. Proceed how you see fit, out."

_Proceed how he sees fit_, he thought. Snake decided to go about his infiltration non-lethally, as usual. He continued down the hallway, he took note of how seriously neglected the oil rig was, because only the occasional ceiling light was on. Snake couldn't see very well, so he had to rely mostly on his ears for this mission. With that in mind...

Snake toggled his radio again. "This is Snake. Entering radio silence to conduct the op, out." he didn't wait for a reply before he shut down his radio.

Continuing down the hallway, he finally encountered his first soldier. He was on a smoke break and had his back turned to the hallway... a complete amateur, in other words. Snake slowly approached him, moving in a specialized way that didn't create a squeaking sound produced by the soles.

"Gagh!"

Snake grabbed a hold of the soldier's right arm and neck. Without waiting, he quickly knocked the soldier out by suffocating him in a way that wouldn't kill him. Once his movement stopped, Snake slowly laid his body on the floor and dragged it into a corner nearby. Once he was sure that the soldier's body would stay there, he exited the hallway out onto a walkway that looked like it encircled the entire oil rig.

Out on the walkway were several soldiers. _Damm..._ Snake thought he couldn't exit because he didn't have a non-lethal weapon that would silently neutralize them. The soldier he recently knocked out didn't even have a weapon, which Snake found to be incredibly odd. Entering the hallway again, he looked down another hallway. Snake saw that there were doors behind each of the soldiers. For a moment, he considered dragging them through the doors one-by-one and knocking them out, but there was no way to muffle the sound, such as with rain or distance. That, and the soldiers weren't covering their faces, so he ran the slight chance of being seen out of their peripheral vision.

Cursing to himself, Snake continued down the hallway, sticking close to the concealment under the window. Two doors down, he saw another door to his left - peering through it, he saw that a computer's screen was on. However, the computer looked rather modern... certainly more modern then the computers from his world. Snake decided his next course of action would be to see if he could use it. He slowly walked into the room, closing the door at a snail's pace and locking it.

He took a seat at the desk, moving the nearby mouse to disrupt it's screensaver. Surprisingly, he wasn't greeted with a login screen. The desktop was cluttered with shortcuts to "folders". Clicking on one labeled "My Documents", a window appeared, showing a list of various word documents. However, one of them stood out.

'_Sakura Empire Contingency Plans'_

Clicking on it, a wall of text appeared in front of him. He couldn't stop himself from reading the text on screen.

* * *

_This is a list of Sakura Empire Contingency plans. These are only to be given to those who are granted Level 7 authorization. Copy by personal without the necessary authorization will be subject to punishment, as listed in section 2.01:14 of the Army Guidelines and Operations handbook._

_N.O.S.W.A.R Protocol: (Negation of Snatched Weapons And Resources)_

_This protocol is to be used when our enemy has appropriated an enemy base. Four (4) bombers are to bombard the base after giving the designated warning. This warning will be listed below with the necessary (and variations of) the operative phrase. The protocol is to be given by a C.O (Commanding Officer) or personnel of equal stature and rank within the Sakura Empire._

_A.B.O.U.T Protocol (Absolute Bombardment of Underwater Trio's)_

_This protocol is only for use against enemy submarine's. This protocol will be authorized by the Tactical Officer taking part in the battle. If successful, move to engage enemy main fleet ships and-_

* * *

The digital document abruptly closed itself, and it asked for a password. Snake didn't know what the Sakura Empire was, but he felt that this was critical information. Snake put his ear against the door and listened for footsteps. He heard a few walking his way, and quickly prepared for the possibility that they would enter the room. However, the footsteps passed by the room and continued down the hallway. Once Snake was sure that they had left, he toggled his radio.

"This is Snake. I've found an enemy document that lists protocols. I tried to read more, but it locked me out. How copy, over?"

"Acknowledged." Z23 replied. "Once you have subdued the enemy personal, we will send an intel team over to retrieve and analyze the data, resume your mission, out."

"Entering radio silence, out." Snake shut off the radio again, slowly exited the room. Thankfully, the soldiers had all left the area. Moving out to the walkway, he continued down it, using the wall under the windows as concealment once again. Unexpectedly, Snake saw a searchlight sweep across him over his head. He didn't even want to know what would happen if he was caught in it.

After reaching the end of the walkway, he peaked out from behind the wall. He was quick enough to re-enter it after seeing a few soldiers headed his way. They kept approaching, and Snake knew that conflict was inevitable. He then waited until the right moment to strike.

With quick succession, Venom Snake exited the corner and shoulder-checked the first soldier, quickly before rushing to chokeslam another. The third one could yell "Contact!" Snake swept him off his feet and then punched him square in the stomach, slamming him into the ground with enough force to render him unconscious. The second one was down, and the third one was crippled. However, the first one was charging straight at him. Snake rerouted a punch intended for his face, and slammed the soldier on the floor using his own arm with momentum. He held his chest to the place and began choking the soldier. Once the soldier's movement began to slow, Snake let go; any more and he would have killed him, and Snake hated killing when the act of taking a life was not necessary.

*Click*

The sound of a gun's safety disengaging caught Snake's attention, and immediately he knew it was checkmate. _So this is how it ends, huh... caught in the headlights like a deer._ Snake thought to himself, not wanting to look back to face his killer in the eyes.

.

..

...

"**That was pretty sloppy of you, Snake. You aren't usually off your game like this."**

_...Wait a moment, that voice... _Snake thought, he immediately recognized who.

🎵 Metal Gear Solid - Afghanistan is a Big Place🎵

Snake turned around. What his eyes saw next stunned him speechless: it was Ocelot, pointing his revolver at him. Snake couldn't help but give his friend a wry smile as Ocelot lowered his revolver and responded with a wry smile of his own. Ocelot pulled the hammer back on his revolver, the cylinder spinning again. He twirled the gun a few times, and gave Snake a knowing smile, and the master of stealth couldn't help but return it.

"Well, what can you say..." Snake said, not trying to deny it. "...When you get thrown through a rift, you'll be pretty 'off your game' anyways. Even more when you don't have your equipment."

Ocelot shrugged. "I guess I'm not in the same boat, am I?"

"No, seems not." Snake replied. He looked at the soldiers he just neutralized. "Are these men survivors of the rift?"

Ocelot holstered his revolver. "That's right. Doesn't look like everyone survived, but we managed to scrape together everyone we could find and took this oil rig." he said, not seeming to feel guilty or impacted in any way. "Let me take a wild guess... you allied yourself with someone and they sent you to reclaim this rig?"

"You're about fifty percent on the mark." Snake replied. "I did ally myself with someone, but I was the one who decided on this mission. Looks like I'm pretty lucky it's already occupied by friendlies."

Ocelot smiled. "That you are. So, are you gonna report back to them or what?"

"Hrm..." Snake stroked his beard. "...I guess that's probably a good idea. Give me a moment."

Ocelot walked over to the men, trying to wake them up as Snake turned on his radio. He'd have to explain this to them, though he didn't anticipate any difficulty.

"This is Snake." Snake spoke into his radio as Ocelot woke up one of the soldiers. "The base is occupied by friendlies. Mission is an unintended success, over."

"Uh... say again all after 'the base', over." Z23 replied over the radio.

"The base is occupied by survivors from Mother Base. Mission is a success. Will introduce them soon, over" Snake repeated his transmission. The soldier Ocelot woke up saluted to Snake, staying silent. As the transmission ended, Snake took notice of the three saluting men. He smiled. "Stand down men. I apologize for treating you like that."

"Oh, no worries, boss!" one of them said. "We're fine with it knowing that it was you."

Snake smiled slightly. Loyal enough to be fine with getting treated like a punching bag... that was one of the reasons he enjoyed leading Diamond Dogs. Ocelot walked up next to Snake.

"We have found Snake. Go inform the other men on the base... we're gonna have a meeting soon."

Snake looked curiously at Ocelot. "A meeting?"

"Indeed." Ocelot replied immediately. "Our men have _very_ bad morale right now. Hearing a good speech from you will flip that on its head."

Snake stroked his beard. "Ah, I see. How many are stationed on this base right now?"

"About sixty. Only twelve were on guard duty, and the rest are sleeping. If it weren't you, I would have sounded the alarms."

"You mean you knew I was here?" Snake looked at him in minor surprise. Ocelot merely chuckled at Snake's shock.

"Of course I did. That plane was pretty fucking loud, and I caught a glimpse of you opening your parachute... I decided that it was a pretty good time to test you - and our men as well."

Snake looked up at the corridor's ceiling. "And you did that by shutting off the lights?"

"Naturally." Ocelot replied. "The men thought that the power generators were failing, but I waved it off as a wiring failure. I'm a _little _disappointed by how many of them bought that excuse."

Ocelot started walking off, looking behind him towards Snake. "Alright, that's enough chit-chat for now. We've got some men to motivate."

Snake simply smiled as he speedwalked to catch up to Ocelot.

.

..

...

* * *

**WAIT! Before you go... we have a discord server ( /r9m5ZDz). If you to come talk to the three of us, then that will be the go-to spot.**


	5. Chapter 4: Tora! Tora Tora?

_**Before you continue, both me and NO. MCCXXII have some important words to say. Please take the time to read what we have to say.**_

**_**The following is from NO. MCCXXII:**_**

****"Normally, I don't physically talk to the readers as I hold most of my communications with my friend Anzu and Raven. But I would like to say these past few months have been busy for both me and Anzu, mainly situations regarding the welfare of our friends on our discord server and troubling mental state that the main writer was going through at the time. I dearly apologize for procrastinating for so long on this project we started. I hope you understand that as writers,_ we all have our own problems to deal with, and our own demons to face._ Thankfully now, we conquered ours and have got back to writing. I hope you enjoy reading chapter 4 of this story and that you look forward to what the future has in store. Me and the boys are certainly eager to continue writing.** **I would like to thank my good friend Anzu for starting this project and all for reading our story. I would especially like to thank our friend Armored Raven for bearing with our dilemmas and sticking with the project to the end. You've have been a big help to us as an expert on Azur Lane lore."****

_**The following is from me:**_

**"Yes, what NO. MCC said up there is true. These past months have not been the best for me... I had so many things thrown at me right after I posted that little update, that I found absolutely no time or motivation to finish this chapter. It's been a long 2 months, but I never forgot about this story. To those who have continued to wait in bated breath, hoping that the next chapter would finally release, I thank you for your extreme patience... this chapter has some of the best stuff I've written yet, plus some of the best stuff MCC has written too. Even Raven got in on the action, so maybe the wait will be rewarded with something truly awesome. Regardless, we are back, and I've evolved. Here's to Chapter 5... because that's when things will start to get _really_ interesting."**

**Raven has no specific words to give.  
**

And as always, the soundtrack link on youtube: playlist?list=PLfUttKNcUeSbjeMmG9z98WlI5VDId3X0P

* * *

_Note: this chapter contains longer-than-usual acts._

_**-Chapter 4: Tora! Tora... Tora? Act 1-**_

-Many days later-

🎵Metal Gear Solid 4 - Tailing The Resistance🎵

-Prinz Eugen's POV-

It has been nearly over 2 weeks since the skirmish between Ironblood and the Royal Navy ships. Prinz Eugen has managed to fully recover over the course of a week and has been currently plotting assaults on the bases of Azur Lane with Bismarck and the other higher ups in Ironblood's chain of command.

Prinz Eugen has been up for nearly over 60 hours, with the strain of insomnia slowly deteriorating her train of thought (and mood). She was tasked by the higher ups to plan an attack on an Eagle Union stronghold, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, the majority of Ironblood's forces are currently tied up; locked in a heated battle between the Northern Parliament over territory in Europe. This has left Ironblood's elite division with little to no reinforcements.

This critical flaw in most of Eugen's plans has driven her over the brink of insanity. She couldn't come up with an effective plan to assault this base. From what she's heard from espionage planes, this was one of Eagle Union's strongest naval bases in the Azur Lane alliance, practically a hub second to the main headquarters near the coast of the U.S. Because of its status, it's one of the most heavily fortified bases in the world. An assault on the base with the current unoccupied Ironblood forces would be a deathwish that would inevitably end in failure.

Prinz Eugen slammed her head against her desk over a map, groaning over the irritation of her failed attempts to draft an effective assault. She didn't bother reacting to the pain of slamming her skull against metal, as she was so tired and fatigued that she could care less about pain. After a brief moment where she nearly passed out, Prinz Eugen forced herself to lift her head back up, trying to regain her thoughts over the progress she has made so far.

Over the course of 60 hours, she has attempted over 83 different assault plans; with all of them lacking a major breakthrough or void of any real practicality. Normally, she would never stay up this long on strategic planning, but due to the pressure the higher ups had given her division, she refused to rest until she came up with a solid plan to report to Bismarck.

While Prinz Eugen was attempting to regain her vision from a complete collapse in functionality, someone slowly opened her door. She quickly reacted by turning around to see who it was. Still drowsy from her lack of rest, she was barely able to make out who was standing at the door.

"Eugen, have you prepared another plan to attack the Eagle Union base yet?"

Prinz Eugen couldn't determine who was speaking to her, and she quickly started to slowly collapse from exhaustion once again.

"Eugen?!" The voice said, fast footsteps following.

She didn't want to reply, as she felt more inclined to close her eyes. Prinz Eugen shut her eyes for a brief moment, only to be rudely awoken by the same voice who started shaking her.

"_EUGEN! Stay awake!_" The voice yelled while shaking her, forcing Prinz Eugen back into consciousness.

"Huh!? What... _who... is..._" Her vision finally cleared up, revealing a blonde haired woman in a black military uniform. It was Bismarck, who looked to be almost irritated by Eugen's current state.

"It's me Bismarck, you're slacking off again!" She said seriously with disappointment in her tone.

"I'm sorry... dammit!..." Prinz Eugen replied drowsy while slowly sitting up in her chair. Bismarck looked briefly at her friend's current state before redirecting her attention to the map on Eugen's desk.

"There is nothing on here." She said coldly, "did you even try to plan anoth-"

"**NO!**" Eugen quickly interrupted Bismarck, with frustration and irritation in her voice. "I-I've spent nearly three days strategically planning t-t-this assault!..." she paused briefly to yawn, "There is no way... we going to put a d-dent… in t-this base!"

Bismarck gave her a somewhat surprised look. Eugen stood up and drowsy walked over to a filing cabinet with a globe sitting on top of it. She then lifted up the globe and pointed at a location near the Gulf of Finland.

"Most of our forces right now... are currently tied in eastern front..." Eugen said while harnessing the last ounces of energy she had in her.

"That Eagle Union base is one of the highest c-concentrations of naval ships in the world... it will foolish for us to attack with our current forces still available!..." She said with malicious intent and a raspy voice. Eugen was also so tired, that her grammar slipped up while she struggled to talk.

Bismarck's eyes widened by her friend's frustration. Prinz Eugen quickly followed up, "There is no way we are going to make a dent in that base... not without a greater numbers!"

Bismarck looked into her friend's eyes for a moment, remaining silent. Seemingly trying to put together a response to say to Eugen. But before Bismarck could open her mouth to respond to what she said, Prinz Eugen fell on her back, landing on her bed while hitting her head against the wall.

Prinz Eugen, from using the remaining amount of focus on communication between Bismarck has left her practically depleted of energy. She layed on her bed, with her head up against the wall and legs off the back, not even bothering to move to get into a more comfortable position on her bed.

The room fell silent for a few minutes. Eugen not wanting to open her eyes heard the sound of footsteps followed by a loud slam of a door closing. The sound made her jump in response, but she could faintly tell that Bismarck had walked out of her room. But after that... she was out like a lightbulb.

-Bismarck's POV-

Bismarck stormed away from Prinz Eugen's quarters, with frustration and irritation on her mind. She was troubled by the same problems that have been plaguing her friend. While not sleep deprived, Bismarck was also thwarted by their unsuccessful attempts at coming up with an effective plan to assault this Eagle Union base.

She and Prinz Eugen had spent a week's worth of brainstorming on this attack. Without little to no break of planning, it has driven both of them mad with frustration, her friend to a greater extent. After the battle between Royal Navy ships somewhere in the Denmark Strait, Prinz Eugen has been in a dire need to seek retribution against the County class cruisers. Bismarck can recall her friend talking about how the fight humiliated her and how much she wanted to "_blow those two ships to oblivion" _as she put it.

Bismarck approached the door to her dorm, she slowly opened the door and walked inside. She took a brief moment to look around her room, it was clean and well kept as she always has maintained it. Bismarck then closed the door behind her and walked over to her bed, sitting down on top of it.

Bismarck expected more out of Prinz Eugen, hoping she would be able to finally come up with a plan to assault the Eagle Union base located in the pacific. Nonetheless, she couldn't blame her current state of mind. Watching her spend almost 3 days of planning by herself while being persistent on not asking for help had made Bismarck worry for her. Despite this, she had problems of her own that made her care less about Eugen's struggles. With a good majority of Ironblood's ships absent and fighting on the eastern front, she had also been tirelessly trying to help maintain order in the base.

There were only a few other Ironblood ships stationed at the base. Besides Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, Gneisenau stayed to file reports and manage paperwork while U-47 was on guard duty in the surrounding waters. Leipzig was the only light cruiser that had volunteered to stay behind, so Bismarck had assigned her as the radio operator. The last ship that stayed behind was Admiral Graf Spee, who had chosen to tend to base maintenance.

While Ironblood was amongst the strongest naval powers in the world, it paled in comparison to the numbers of Eagle Union and the Royal Navy. Despite this disadvantage, Ironblood made up for their lack of numbers for their sheer strength and fire power. Thanks to superior technology, strategy and willpower of their units, they became amongst the strongest and most feared naval powers in the world.

Bismarck always did her best to live up to their legacy. Being diligent in battle and striking down every opponent that crossed her with an ironfist, she had quickly risen in the ranks as one of the leaders of Ironblood. Her service in Ironblood has made her the most decorated ship in Ironblood. Many of her subordinates say that she is "_the pride of the nation"_, the "_beast made of steel_" and that she _"was_ _made to rule the waves across the seven seas."_

Despite all the stories and declarations they gave her, Bismarck never looked at herself as a ruler, but rather a soldier. She believed that her service is for the sake of Ironblood's cause; _**to bring peace to the world through strength, and strength through dominance**_.

With all this self reflection slowly making her fall asleep, she decided to settle down and get some rest. While Bismarck may be a battleship built for war, _she was still human_. She then took off her hat and set it on a table near her bed. She laid her head down on her pillow and began to drift off into sleep.

.

..

…

"... rck... Bismarck..."

_Who could it be in this damned hour?…_ Bismarck thought to herself as she heard an unknown voice urging her to wake up. Her eyes drifted towards the clock on the wall, showing the time to be 4 in the morning when the sky was still dark.

"...Are you coming to? You're not dying from your stress, are you?"

After a few more seconds of processing, Bismarck now had a good idea as to who was calling her. Normally, members of Ironblood who were part of the same fleet as her would not be allowed to meddle with her room because of two reasons: there was no need to and Bismarck was always known for being orderly and in keeping of decorum. However, there was another reason which the vast majority of Ironblood had not known of.

That reason being that the burden Bismarck had been carrying since the moment she had been appointed an acting admiral. The burden was a certain relic hidden underneath her bed.

"What do you want?" In stark contrast to the somewhat playful tone of the call coming from the relic, Bismarck's tone was full of irritation, as she had not calmed down from the multiple days of stressful futile efforts in plotting an assault on the enemy base. She did not attempt to hide the venom in her voice.

"Just letting you know about the relevant information."

"Like the flaw of the Azur Lane base my fleet was tasked to destroy?" Bismarck asked, even though knowing that the caller wouldn't deign to provide such information.

"Hehehe… you know I'm not authorized to give that kind of information." The caller answered playfully, but switched to a more serious tone of voice. "Although, this piece of truth is about something affecting all sides equally."

Bismarck's eyebrows twitched upon hearing the abrupt shift in tone. If the caller had anything to be said with a serious tone, it would be wise to assume this information would be more important than orders from the heart of Ironblood itself.

"I'm sure you had a feeling that's been bugging your mind. Why has the Royal Navy not been coming after you specifically after you struck down the glory of the Royal Navy _itself?_ Surely you did have some doubts for days on end, didn't you?"

"What are you getting at?" Bismarck was never good at following the caller's rhetorical questions, so she chose to press for answers instead, even though the words did point out one truth.

"Simply put, an _anomaly_ happened." The caller answered, "An anomaly so great the predictions of possible actions of the other side of this war were off the mark. This has _**never**_happened before..."

"How does this concern both sides?" Bismarck was curious in a concerning way. If this anomaly was to be a danger to Ironblood itself, she felt that she might need to defy her orders and use this chance to take her fleet to a well deserved rest away from the exercise in futility that was assaulting the base.

The caller giggled slightly, "I cannot say for certain. But it is possible that you might see a very cruel change in the upcoming battles. Imagine that the ranks of your enemies include... flesh... and blood... put simply, **humans**..."

"You must be **joking**!" Bismarck snarled immediately upon the mention of humans. As a _Kansen_, Bismarck's reaction to the notion of fighting humans on the waters of war was thinking it to be disgusting, to put it lightly. Literal humans, threatened with the fate of extinction from the advent of technologically advanced beings many years ago, had no hope of matching _Kansen_ in combat even in the present day.

To say that humans would be a part of the war now was to say that _Kansen_ would have to violate their collective raison d'etre, no matter which faction it would be.

"**You better hope I am.** At least from the looks of things, there's no sign of the humans' involvement decreasing in momentum. Complicated still, there are different camps of them as well..." The caller replied. "...And they're experienced. From the intelligence we gathered, these humans appear to be organizing together, and wear identical apparel... as if they're part of a collective faction."

If Bismarck was already reeling from the information before, the words just now were enough to deliver a metaphorical uppercut to her chin. Sleep was out of the question now. "You mean to tell me that those humans' involvement in this war somehow bought the Ironblood time...?"

"_Your time_, specifically." The caller giggled, "You should use this chance to prepare yourself for whatever unpredictable matters that will come your way. Personally, I'm also invested in Eugen's well being, so give her the order to rest if you can."

"Will that be all?" Bismarck asked while sitting up from her bed.

"Yes... Long live the fatherland, hehehehe..." The call ended on an unsettling note, leaving Bismarck to worry about her and her fleet's new situation...

.

..

...

-Several hours later-

_*Knock Knock Knock*_

The sound of loud knocking on Bismarck's door woke her up. It only has been a couple minutes since she received a call that alerted her of possible future events. Irritated by the constant knocking, Bismarck forced herself out of her bed and walked over to the door to see who it was. She opened the door to reveal a white haired girl with a long red scarf and a black dress. It was Admiral Graf Spee, who like usual is blank with her emotions.

She stared blankly into Bismarck's eyes, causing a quiet tension to form between the two. Before Bismarck could break the ice by asking why she came knocking at her door, Graf Spee finally spoke up.

"Your excellency, U-47 is awaiting approval of two ships that arrived 15 minutes ago. She said these two individuals would like to have a meeting with you and Prinz Eugen." She said with an empty tone. Bismarck wiped the drowsiness out of her eyes before responding.

"Did Leizig specify what these two indivduals look like to you?" Bismarck asked.

Graf Spee remained silent for a brief moment, "Both similar in appearance, one has brown hair and the other white… _Both have fox ears_."

Bismarck's eyes widened, and she immediately recognized Graf Spee's vague description. She quickly closed the door. Bismarck then began quickly fixing her uniform, putting her officer cover on her head before opening the door to address Graff Spee's response.

"Inform Leipzig to let the two pass. Once they arrive at the docks, escort them to the meeting room," Bismarck said while adjusting the medals on her uniform.

Graf Spee nodded and quickly walked away from her room down the left side of the hallway. Bismarck made her way in the opposite direction and headed towards Prinz Eugen's room. She knocked on the door and got no response from Eugen. Realizing she passed out while in the middle of a conversation, she slowly opened the door to find her friend still fast asleep, practically in the same position as she left her.

"Eugen, we have visitors who wish to have a meeting with us." Bismarck said formally. Prinz Eugen didn't respond to her and was out cold.

She then raised her voice, "_Prinz Eugen, WAKE UP!_" Eugen suddenly sprang to life at Bismarck's words. She looked around her surroundings in shock before fixing her gaze onto Bismarck.

Prinz Eugen quickly stood up, "Bismarck…" she quickly yawned. "What is going on?"

"We have visitors who wish to have a meeting with us," Bismarck replied.

Eugen gave her a skeptical look, "Huh… I don't suppose it is the fox sisters who wish to speak to us, no?"

Bismarck nodded at her response, "Yes, make your way to the meeting room as soon as possible, they will be arriving shortly." Prinz Eugen then began to stretch,

"...Very well..." She replied, still sleepy.

.

..

...

-10 minutes later-

🎵Metal Gear Solid 4 - Tailing The Resistance [Level 2]🎵

Bismarck and Prinz Eugen were sitting at a conference table in a room, with no one else sitting in the room with them. Both waiting quietly for the supposed guests to arrive. Normally, Ironblood will always destroy or neutralize any ships that intrude on their waters, but Bismarck knew that these ships weren't enemies, but rather mutual allies.

After what has felt to be over an hour of waiting, the door finally opened. Admiral Graf Spee walked into the room, behind her trailed two women. As she described it, they were both very similar in appearance. They both had fox ears and many tails, but one had long brown hair while the other had short white hair. The first wore a black japanese robe, while the latter had a white robe and both of them have a metal sash around their waists with a golden crest at the center. Graf Spee stood behind them, watching them from behind.

"Greetings Ms. Bismarck." Brown haired woman said formally, "We have come to have a meeting with you."

Bismarck replied, "Greetings Akagi and Kaga, you may both have a seat. Admiral Graf Spee, leave. I wish to speak to them without your presence"

Graff Spee nodded and left the room, leaving her and Eugen alone with the two women. The brown haired woman sat down at the opposite end of the table, the white haired woman soon followed and sat down next to her.

"Has there been any progress in the assault against the base?" Akagi asked with a confident demeanor.

Bismarck glanced over at Eugen, she did the same and looked at Bismarck. Considering they have made no progress in developing an effective strategy, Bismarck didn't know how to respond to her question. Eugen looked to be in the same boat as her, unsure on how to respond as well. Despite being unconfident in the situation she was in, Bismarck kept her blank expression amongst the silence in the room. After a few exchanges of glances at each other, Prinz Eugen finally broke the ice.

"Unfortunately, with the current available ships we have in our ranks, we are unable to create an effective strategy to assault the Eagle Union base."

Akagi smiled at her response, "Oh, I see not even the toughest in our alliance is able to come up with a battle plan."

Bismarck quickly responded, "Most of our forces are currently tied up on the Eastern front, fighting the northern parliament. An assault with our current forces would be nothing but a fool's errand, and if I may be so blunt, I do not desire the taking of responsibility for a defeat that can be avoided."

"Sister, shall we?" Kaga, the white-haired fox woman whispered to Akagi while glancing at her.

"Very well." Akagi grinned in response, then looked back at Bismarck, "Regardless of the outcome of your assault, the two of us have come bearing good tidings. As allies of the same front, the Crimson Axis, neither of us can afford a collapse in military power. Word doesn't take long to travel far that your _other_ ranks have been occupied."

Then Kaga added, "Which is why as Sakura Empire, we've been amassing a force for a total assault in your place."

Bismarck raised an eyebrow, giving her a skeptical look. "What do you have in mind?"

"We only seek to claim 60% of that base's functions and resources as compensation. Not a bad offer, considering the amount of trouble we'll be putting ourselves in." Akagi grinned, "Not like you cannot put your own available warriors to the test, but we're not exactly having the time to recoordinate ourselves on a joint mission."

Bismarck took a few moments to take Akagi's offer into account. There hasn't been much operations going on at the base since the majority left. With little to no demands for oil and ammunition, they have managed to stockpile an abundance of resources, enough to last 2 months without resupplies. She didn't have much to lose in this offer, other than the pride that all Ironblood ships including herself shared. However, her current fleet's size was something that she had no control over.

"Very well. But first, I would like to hear your plan on going about an attack on the base in the pacific." Bismarck asked with a serious tone.

"It isn't anything fancy. Our tactic is to commit an assault force which we believe to be sufficient to overwhelm the defenses and the ranks of the base. Of course, as the famed 1st Carrier Division, the two of us will be a part of the assault as well." Akagi smiled upon mentioning herself and Kaga, while Kaga herself barely had any reaction.

"It's simply a consequence of not having any spies available, and I believe the same issue also plagued the dear Prinz Eugen."

Prinz Eugen frowned at her remark, "I was simply toying with them." She said with irritation in her eyes. "I couldn't react in time to avoid the artillery fire."

Akagi continued to smirk at Eugen who was slowly starting to descend into anger. Kaga however, kept a straight face. Bismarck, realizing the frustration in her friend's eyes, spoke up.

"A mistake on her part. Regardless, she had to risk herself for any amount of information she could've gotten away with. Her action was not a waste, and I will see to it that it won't become such." Bismarck said confidently.

Her words seem to ease Eugen's held back anger as she slowly relaxed her expression. Akagi, however, was unphased by Bismarck's words.

"We do not require your information in order for our assault to work. There are little problems that a few hundred bombers cannot destroy, and our assault force just so happens to be able to deploy that number." Kaga spoke with certainty, which reminded Akagi not to slight the Ironblood just because they were here to make an offer.

Bismarck thought about the possibility of an assault carried out by hundreds of attack planes being a success. Potentially, it could work. However, the Eagle Union base in question had incredibly powerful anti air defenses with many ships at their docks on standby. The only way they would be able to carry out such an attack was if they struck when their guard was down. Bismarck decided to test Akagi's and Kaga's proposed plan, with a question.

"Your hundreds of bombers are no match for their defenses. Are you both prepared to face an impenetrable wall?" Bismarck asked.

"It's not good to think little of our experience in battle, Ms. Bismarck. Our aim isn't to achieve total victory in one strike, but to accomplish our goal in gradual steps. First we remove them of their ability to mobilize their ships. Then we strike hard on their morale. Finally, we simply wait for them to collapse on themselves." Akagi grinned. Her words showed that they had indeed thought this through. Few military strategies worked better than resorting to overwhelming force when it came to dealing with an opposition whose information was unavailable.

Kaga followed by adding, "It is always the darkest before dawn. We will give the base a rude awakening…"

Bismarck nodded in response, "When do you plan on launching this attack?"

"If there are no mishaps, then a few days from now." Akagi smiled, "There will likely be a margin for losses when the assault takes place, but until then, we will prepare ourselves accordingly."

"Good." Bismarck replied simply, before quickly glancing over at the clock. It read 06:43 hours, which meant the meeting had carried on for over an hour and half. Before she could cut the meeting short, Prinz Eugen spoke up.

"It is almost morning, best if you both are on your way now if you seek to carry this assault."

Akagi and Kaga then stood up from their chairs. "Thank you for your time, we will deprive them of their fighting spirit." Akagi said sinisterly

Kaga nodded but remained silent. They walked out the door and left the room. Bismarck then pressed down a button at the end of her table and spoke into a mic.

"Graf Spee, escort Akagi and Kaga out." She then released the button and looked over at Eugen. She had her head down on the table, still tired from continuously being awake for more than 60 hours.

She passed the responsibility of attacking the base to Akagi and Kaga. Not disappointed at this action, she knew that they had a better chance at a successful attack than the current available fleet of Ironblood. With Akagi and Kaga carrying out their plan, Bismarck knew that it was a matter of waiting.

Waiting for their attack to commence…

.

..

…

_-Chapter 4: Act 2-_

🎵 No Music 🎵

-Snake's POV-

-04:00 AM-

"...Ake..."

.

..

...

"Sn...E..."

.

..

...

"...Snake... me in...!"

The voice of a nearby radio gradually awoke Snake from his deep slumber. Gradually, he was awoken by the harsh buzzing from his earpiece. For some reason, he hadn't taken it off when he went to sleep yesterday on the oil rig. Irritated, he tapped a small button on the earpiece.

"_Now I'm here._"

The voice of Z23 greeted him frantically. "Oh good, you _are _awake! We need you to mobilize your men! One of our bases is under attack by a squadron of Sakura Fleet airplanes!'

A fleet of Sakura Empire airplanes? Who is the Sakura Empire...? Snake opted not to question this for the moment, but another question had to be asked instead.

"What is the name of the base?" Snake asked through the radio.

"..."

Silence followed, which made Snake speak louder. "_What is the name of the base?_"

"Pearl Harbor."

.

..

...

_Pearl Harbor?_ Snake thought to himself. Quickly he realized that was the attack that got America to fight in the 2nd World War... Wait a moment, _This was happening as they spoke!? _Immediately, Snake quickly forced himself out of his bed. "I see. Well, go get Saratoga and tell her to bring the plane to my base. I can't mobilize most of my men because we don't have vehicles, so i'm only bringing a few of my men with me."

"Oh..." Z23 sounded disappointed. "Alright then, but please hurry! We're already experiencing casualties!"

🎵Warframe - Hunhow's Theme🎵

"Roger." Snake said as he quickly put on his suit and Battle Dress and quickly ran out the door. "Give me an ETA on Saratoga's arrival."

"10 minutes. I already had her deployed and have been trying to contact you for a while now. Next time, please pick up!" Z23 responded through the radio, sounding increasingly distressed. Snake didn't respond, and quickly sprinted down the hallways towards the combined barracks. Right as he opened the door, he saw a familiar face hobbling across the floor.

"**MILLER!**"

The man quickly turned around, nearly stumbling onto the ground thanks to the pure ferocity and urgency of Snake's yelling.

"_Snake?_ What's the problem?"

Snake wasted no time, and quickly answered. "My ally is being attacked. It's a base in the middle of the ocean, getting overwhelmed by enemy air."

"Hmm..." Miller leaned against the wall, taking off his glasses. "And what's the name of this base?"

"**Pearl Harbor."**

Time suddenly seemed to go in slow motion, as the man dropped his glasses from his hand. The clatter of the plastic on the ground was immediately followed by Miller's serious voice, only used for when serious things needed to get going.

"Pearl Harbor? The base that caused America to mobilize to fight Japan in World War II!?"

Snake nodded his head quickly. "The very same. It's happening as we speak - I'm going to equip myself with what's left in the inventory. Go get Ocelot to grab a few talented men; we're gonna need some medics."

"Alright, boss. You go raise the base alarms and I'll go get Ocelot, since the men will want to hear _you_ asking for their help."

Snake hastily ran off down the hallway in front of Miller. He took a left at a nearby staircase, entering an office room which overlooked the entire oil rig. This must've been where Ocelot saw him... regardless, Snake wasted no time again and quickly hit the alarm. The dreadfully loud sound echoed through the hallways, and he quickly turned on the microphone.

"_All hands, This is Snake. An allied base is getting attacked by enemy air... and unlucky us, the base is none other than __**Pearl Harbor.**__ We have been transported to the past...Those who are willing to help rescue some people from a historic battle, meet at the southern side of the oil rig for further briefing."_

Snake shut off the microphone and quickly ran back down the hallway... but quickly 180'd around to press the button that turns on the lights throughout the entire building. He turned back around and sprinted down the hallways again...

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..

...

-5 Minutes Later-

"Alright, men. You have gathered here to help me assist an allied faction from taking further casualties. You stand here, knowing that what you could do today could very well be the last thing that you ever do. Even in the face of certain death, are you still ready to do what it takes to save some souls you don't even know?"

"_YES SIR!"_

"_YES SIR!"_

"_YES SIR!"_

The three men that Snake had gathered up responded without hesitation. Ocelot smiled at them when they responded to his long question with no lack of courage. Snake, too, was also smiling.

Snake stepped forward. "Alright, men. We don't have much equipment, but it's better then nothing. Take what you think will be necessary. We will leave when the seaplane makes a landing next to our oil rig... and if you get cold feet, you're free to back out."

Snake said that last part in a gentle tone. The three men shook their head in response, and collectively took one step forward. Snake turned around and entered the armory. Each of the men grabbed what little equipment that had survived the rift: several UN-ARC's assault rifles - mixed between lethal and non-lethal variants, an ALM-48 LMG and two M2000 sniper rifles, plus a handful of WU 's. Each of the soldiers grabbed an S Pistol, two grabbed UN-ARC's, both lethal and non-lethal and one grabbed an M2000-NL. With all the soldiers ready, Snake grabbed an ALM-48 for himself, and they exited the armory after the soldiers geared up.

The soldiers equipped their balaclava's that concealed their faces as always, and soon after they departed down the hallway towards an exterior catwalk. Snake toggled his radio a short while into their walk.

"This is Snake. Give me an update on Saratoga's ETA."

"ETA 2 minutes, you should hear her plane right about now." Z23 responded from the radio. "Have you gathered your men?"

"Yeah. We'll be ready when she gets here."

Snake shut off his radio. Right on cue, he heard Saratoga's plane from the dimly-lit sky. Ocelot, who was standing next to him, chuckled silently. "That thing could probably get shot down, with how loud it sounds."

Snake gave Ocelot a wry smile. "...Yeah."

Snake speed walked off to rejoin his soldiers at the dock of the oil rig. Right as they reached the docks, the plane touched down on the water, and slowly taxied it's way over to where Snake and his group of soldiers were standing. Quickly, Snake and his squad took no time to hesitate and jumped straight into the water. They furiously swimmed over to the plane, probably with a little too much effort. Right as they approached the vehicle, Snake could just barely hear the side door opening up. Right after that was a childish voice yelling loudly.

"Up here, men!"

He had no time to look up from the water, and instead grabbed onto a rail that was next to the side door. Snake pulled himself into the airplane, his men doing the same one at a time. Once he immediately took a seat, he looked around to see three small girls. One of them had long, light brown hair with purple eyes and wearing what seemed to be a school uniform. Said girl also spoke up, standing with her arms crossed and wearing a brave face.

"So you're the men that The Commander enlisted? I hope you're proficient enough to deliver swift justice to those who are attacking our allies!"

Snake looked to his side, where his men were sitting, then back at the girl. "Yeah. Pearl Harbor, right? I think I know what's happening down there."

He declined to comment that this had already happened in his world. Even though this was a separate universe, not many people would believe that he already knew what would happen. Not without further explanation, anyways. After he replied to the girl, she smiled and took a seat.

Suddenly, a flash briefly showed Snake's own shadow in front of himself. He and his men looked behind to see an orange-haired girl holding a camera. She lowered it and gave a smirk to the incredulous men.

"This will make for a pretty good photo to give to the press!~"

Snake wanted to get up and snatch the camera away from the girl, but something in the back of his mind told him that was a _very_ bad idea. He simply grimaced, hoping that the girl wouldn't idiotically sell the photo off to the public like she said she would.

"Hey, Gridley!~" A voice rang out in the intercom - Saratoga's voice. "That's a very bad idea! The other factions don't know about them yet, so I think The Commander would want to keep them a secret for now."

The girl clicked her tongue in audible irritation. "Fine... In that case, you'll have to give me a private photoshoot later as compensation!"

"Deal." replied Saratoga.

Immediately after Saratoga replied, she gestured from behind her seat to another girl sitting next to the light brown-haired girl. The other girl seemed to understand the gesture, and got up from the seat to close the side door. However, she quickly took a seat and the plane began to take off from the water. Everyone on board immediately strapped their seat buckles in as Snake performed a round check on his ALM-48 light machine gun.

.

..

...

Several minutes after they were in the sky, the sound of the intercom crackling signaled Saratoga was about to say something.

"You can get out of your seats now!"

Before Saratoga had even finished speaking, all three girls unbuckled themselves and stood up, stretching. The girl with long light-brown hair started talking.

"Alright, I think we should introduce ourselves."

Snake eyed the apparent girl in front of him with a bit of skepticism before letting the girl do the introductions, "I am Charles Ausburne, captain of the Little Beavers! Under my wing, there shall only be justice, and I can tell with my two eyes that you seek to exact justice on your accord as well, mister!"

"That's a bit too far, don't you think?" Spoke the girl in short blonde hair tied in two short twintails, "The name's Gridley, as you no doubt know just now. I'm here to capture Saratoga's charm with my camera, so can you please not look at me like I'm about to do a gossip report? I'm not from any press, I swear…"

The last girl on the seats, one who looked like a sports runner with pale blonde hair spoke, "I'm Maury. I heard about what's going on briefly from Saratoga. If my speed is what's needed, I will do my part."

Snake simply nodded, but when he wanted to open his lips in response under whatever precious little time was allowed for conversation, he couldn't speak up. His mind wasn't finished with sizing up the girls in front of him. He wanted to inquire about their experience in dealing with disasters, but was afraid that it would trigger psychological traumas; _something he was all too familiar with_.

"Hmm, for a big soldier guy, he certain seems to have a shortage of words." Charles held her own chin in wonder.

"What? Oh, no…" Snake was stirred into speaking by her remark, "I was wondering if you had that kind of experience. What's going on is likely war in action... think you can handle it?"

"I can see you're giving us little credit, but very well." Charles grinned, "If there is trouble, all we need to do is to solve it. Saratoga didn't gather us to fight back right away. Am I right?"

"Well, yeah." Gridley nodded confidently, "What about the other guys with covered faces?"

One of the men sitting opposite to Gridley looked up from inspecting his firearm. "Who, us? We're just his men, but you girls look like you need some help too." Another one moved his gaze from the window to the girl. "No offense but you don't look like you pack the muscle."

"What he said." The soldier next to him remarked.

"Hahaha… Oh, you better not let Glowworm hear that. She won't let you have the end of it." Charles laughed heartily like the men's assumption was a rookie mistake in itself.

"Well, I don't know who this 'Glow Worm' of yours is, but I'm known as 'Fire Lizard'. My real name is classified." The soldier holding an assault rifle introduced himself.

The soldier who told the girls not to mind him then introduced himself. "I am 'Shaken Ape', mostly because of my flexible joints and reflexes."

"And I'm 'Resting Crow', the guy who looks at things twice." The last soldier introduced himself while raising his hand before putting it down.

"Hmmm, if I didn't know any better, I'd say those are the names of robbers." Charles mumbled, "So, you three have seen a lot of action following the boss man over here?"

Lizard replied, "Sure enough. At first we were actually Boss' enemies, you know? But then he came at us without being seen, then one thing led to another before we were taken under his wing. After that, we were sent on missions where we could liberate other soldiers from unsavory employment. At least, as much as we could anyway…"

Crow added, "But nothing we did could compare to the deeds of our Boss himself. We're not gonna go through them ourselves. They're stuff that are best heard from his own lips."

"Mysterious, mysterious~" Gridley grinned, "Just for the sake of curiosity, is there any reason why you're called 'Snake'?"

Snake was taken aback by the question, but then the gears inside his own head started to spin differently from usual. The only reason why he himself was called Snake was due to a deception. One that was also a desperate attempt to buy time for the real owner of the callsign. To the world, he was still Big Boss, and fewer knew him as Snake if they had been keeping track of the background story. But only an extreme few knew that it wasn't always the case.

To put it simply, he wasn't called Snake due to voluntary circumstances. He could recite the reason, but it wouldn't be honest. Eventually his mind came to a daring decision to cast it all aside in this strangely different world.

"For most people, I'm Snake because I'm the best in acting out that name on the battlefield. I sneak around without a sound and without attracting attention, and like a venomous snake, I strike in a sudden manner. But like snakes in general, they will shed their skins as they grow. My skin has yet to shed for the final time…" Snake spoke, ".. My name…

**...is **_**Ahab**_**."**

Gridley asked, "You mean Ahab as in Captain Ahab from 'Moby Dick'?"

"Yes, that Ahab." Snake nodded, "I prefer to be called that name. I'm no whale hunting maniac, but I do lead a crew of people looking to survive in this world." Charles looked at Snake for a brief moment, nodding at his words.

"You must have fought in many battles... you have my respect... Mr. _Ahab_," Charles said with a smile.

Suddenly Saratoga spoke over the intercoms, "Heheh, I'm still going to call you Snake, snake!~"

Gridley tried to hold back her laughter but it broke out anyways. It was then followed up by Charles Ausburne and Maury giggling at Saratoga's response. Snake looked over and noticed that Crow appeared to be silently laughing as well - Snake could tell he was laughing at Saratoga's response, regardless of the fact that his men were wearing masks.

He didn't think much of his subordinates laughing at a joke directed at him. However, he is _very_ serious about wanting to be called Ahab. There was a good reason why he specifically wanted to be called the name he was given at the Cypress hospital instead of Snake: Snake was the codename of Big Boss, the man that he himself was made an imperfect clone of. A puppet being pulled by the strings for a greater purpose. Now that he was in a world where he only had himself, his soldiers and his friends, he had no reason to keep up the facade. No nations to deceive to conceal another man in a master plan.

_**It was time that he became his **__**own**__** man, just like he was before the accident all those years ago.**_

45 minutes later

_**BANG! **_

"Sn...ake…"

"S-Snake..."

"_**SNAKE! WAKE UP!"**_

A sudden loud bang ringed in his ears, and Snake woke up from the shock from the loud noise. His vision was still blurry for his nap, and he blinked multiple times until his vision finally started to clear. There standing before him was Maury, shaking him rapidly with worry in her eyes.

"Snake! You're awake… We're under fire!"

🎵MGS4 - Escaping Shadow Moses (Infinite Loop - Surface Tunnel)🎵

Snake, now on full alert, took off his restraining harness and darted towards the nearest window of the plane. They have finally arrived at the island, and were heading towards the large port off the side of the island. '_Pearl Harbor... ' _The thought of Snake living through history sends waves of adrenaline through his spine. He watched as the fighter planes swarmed the island, dropping bombs and stirring chaos and destruction upon the Iand. Snake's 1000 yard stare was quickly interrupted by the panicking of the girls and the commotion of his men. Soon the ringing in his ear stopped. Finally being able to hear again, he was quickly approached by Crow, who already has his parachute put on.

"Boss, we gotta jump now! There is no way our plane will be able to make it to land in one piece!" Crow said as he swung his rifle onto his back. Before Snake could respond, Saratoga quickly spoke over the speakers.

"No can do! There're enemy submarines in the waters, you'll be shark meat before you could get a chance to rest easy, Crow!"

Charles Ausburne, took off her restraining harness and stood up. "Then we gotta get closer to the shore… Fly us in as far as you can Saratoga!"

"_**I'M TRYING! THIS PLANE ISN'T AN F6F HELLCAT!" **_Saratoga said while yelling over the comms with desperate urgency.

Snake watched as everyone stood up from their seats, preparing in anticipation of jumping out of the plane. Without thinking, Snake rushed over to a parachute in the seat next to Lizard and put it on. Lizard looked over and handed him his ALM-48 LMG. Thinking fast, he grabbed it and quickly loaded in a box of non-lethal rounds. After he had loaded his LMG, he turned around to check on the others and noticed that Maury and Charles had bits of ship parts, like hull armor, guns and torpedo launchers hanging on metal arms attached to their bodies.

Gridley, however, doesn't seem to be preparing for the situation they were in. Rather she was looking out the window taking pictures of the chaos erupting on the island.

"GRIDLEY!" Fire Lizard yelled, "This isn't the time to take pictures, we're gonna jump here real soon!"

Gridley turned around with a smirk on her face, "Aww, I was just getting a good shot of the action… Oh, that reminds me!" She quickly stood up and walked over to the cockpit of the plane.

"Sara~ Smile!" She said out loud and took a snapshot of Saratoga with her back turned. The bright flash alerted Saratoga as she turned around to see where the flash came from. Soon after she was then blinded by the flash of Gridley's camera.

"Heheh, that one is going in the flight album!"

"Gridley! This isn't the time to be taking pictures… _I didn't even get to smile in that picture_… can we do that aga-..."

_**BANG!**_

A loud boom followed by the plane shaking, caused everyone onboard to fall onto the ground or against the wall. Snake quickly pushed himself up and ran over to the right window of the plane. He saw smoke trailing behind what remained of the right side of the wing. There was also a rapid, high pitched beeping coming from the cockpit. The plane then started to shake and buck up and down and side to side rapidly, _They were gonna crash._

"Fuck… what the hell was that!?" Shaken Ape yelled while holding onto the rails in the plane.

Saratoga yelled at the top of her lungs, _"WE'RE GONNA CRASH! Everyone hold onto something!"_

Snake instinctively grabbed onto the railing of the plane. With the blink of an eye, Charles Ausburne got up and rushed to the rails and held onto it with both hands. Gridely not prepared for the situation they were in, frantically rushing over to the railing to grab it only to be jerked backwards by the constant shaking of the plane. Maury leaned forward to grab Gridley by her camera and pulled her towards her.

"I got you, grab a hold of the railing!" She yelled over the inaudible sound of the plane ripping apart from the outside.

The plane then began to slowly take a big dive, and all the stuff on the floor began to fall forward. Everyone hung on by the rails as they braced for impact. Snake's grip on the rails got tighter as he felt his body being pulled by the gravity of the plane descending. From the grip slowly weakening in his hands, Lizard suddenly fell forward.

"AHHHHHHH~!" Fire Lizard screamed as he quickly slid on the floor towards the cockpit. The shaking of the plane then jerks everyone to the right, causing Lizard and the boxes on the floor to hit the walls of the plane hard.

"LIZARD, GRAB ONTO THE RAILING!" Shaken Ape Yells.

"I'M TRYING!" He yelled back. Snake then felt the plane slowly roll to the right, watching as the boxes and Lizard landed on top of the hatch of the plane, causing the door to swing wide open. All the boxes flooded out of the plane, without hesitation Lizard quickly anchored himself at the doorway.

"FUCK! Snake, Ape… Maury, _HELP ME_!" Snake desperately wanted to pull his subordinate away from the window. However, due to the position he was in, he wouldn't be able to save Fire Lizard without being pulled in by the turbulence of the wind.

"I can't reach you!" Maury yelled over to Lizard.

"Snake! What do we do!?" Resting Crow yelled out to him.

Due to the dire situation they were in, Snake couldn't do anything to help pull Lizard away from the window. He knew there was only one thing he and his men could do.

"**EVERYONE, HOLD ON!**" Snake yelled out as loud as he could.

Charles looked over to Lizard who had lost grip in his right arm and now was only holding onto the plane with his left arm. Without any further hesitation, Charles suddenly let go of the railing, quickly sending her sliding towards the hatch.

Lizard losing the last amount of strength in his arms lets go of the framing of the door. Before he could fly out, Charles quickly grabbed his arm.

"I've got you!" She yelled, "Give me your other hand!"

Lizard jerked his hand forward as it was being pulled by the turbulence of the wind. Charles Ausburne then grabs his other hand.

"Hold on!" She yelled as a bright blue aura surrounded her. Snake's eye widened at the anomaly happening before him. Like a bolt of lightning, Charles Ausburne darted up the plane with Fire Lizard trailing behind, running up to the side of the plane at an incredible speed.

"Alright, grab onto the rails!" Ausburne yelled as the aura surrounding her subsided and Lizard quickly and without hesitation grabbed onto the rails with both hands.

Snake was amazed at the feat Ausburne just accomplished, but also relieved that he and his subordinates were all out of harm's reach. But before he could further contemplate the sight before him, Saratoga yelled over the coms.

"WE'RE COMING IN FOR A CRASH LANDING!"

Soon after, Snake felt the plane making heavy contact with the ground. His head slammed against the wall of the plane hard. His vision went black, he was thrown into darkness.

.

…

….

🎵Music Stops🎵

_-Unknown amount of time later-_

"Snake… come in… are you there?"

_._

_.._

_..._

"This is Z23, do you copy!?"

_._

_.._

_..._

"**SNAKE!"**

The screaming of Z23's voice into Snake's earpiece suddenly sprung him back to life. He woke up with a gasp, surprised that he was still alive from the crash. He tried to sit upwards but there were bits of debris from the remains of their plane on top of him. He pulled his arms out from underneath and began to push the large and heavy sheet of metal off of him with a mighty grunt. Slowly, he slid himself out freeing his legs before standing up to begin surveying his surroundings. They landed in a forest, with remains of the plane scattered around him. Looking behind himself, he saw a _lot_ of toppled trees - perhaps they were what cushioned the crash landing? Off in the distance, the harsh crackles of repeating gunfire resounded throughout the vicinity.

"Snake… are you there? I-I think I've heard you grunt… are you okay?" Z23 said over coms.

Snake took a few moments to catch his breath before replying, "Yeah, we have landed on the island… barely surviving a crash landing."

"Oh thank goodness, you made it to land." Z23 paused for a moment to sigh with relief. "I've looked into the base's reports and found that there was submarine activity in the waters surrounding shore… you all would have been swarmed by subs if you choose to jump early."

Snake wiped off the sweat from his forehand, and looked at his hand to find blood on it. Realizing he was bleeding from his forehead, he reached over to a bag on his side to pull out a bandage. Before he pulled it out of the bag, he heard the sound of men yelling names… _It was his men._

"_WHOEVER THE FUCK IS STILL ALIVE, SAY SOMETHING!"_

The voice of Fire Lizard yelled loudly. Shortly after, the voice of Shaken Ape followed suit. _"SAME GOES TO YOU, GIRLS! IF YOU CAN HEAR US, COME TOWARDS OUR VOICE!"_ yelled Shaken Ape. Immediately, Snake stopped reaching for the bandage and was about to make a beeline for his men. However...

"...Someone... Help... me..."

🎵MGS4 - Outer Heaven [Caution]🎵

The faint and struggling voice of Saratoga came from behind Snake. He quickly turned around, and started banging on the fuselage. _"IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, KEEP TALKING!"_ he said while deliberately raising his voice so that his men could hear him. As expected, his two men came running over as soon as their leader's iconic voice barked that command. Snake took a few seconds to apply a bandage to his cut forehead before addressing them.

"I need help. Saratoga's stuck under the debris, and she's probably getting flattened into a pancake. You two, help me move the fuselage." Snake barked an order to his two men, who immediately ran over to the fuselage. Before they started moving it, Snake quickly decided to warn Saratoga. _"WE'RE GONNA FREE YOU! IF YOU CAN STILL MOVE YOUR ARMS, THEN PUSH AS HARD AS YOU CAN!"_

Snake didn't even wait to hear the mischievous girl's response. He and his two soldiers started their attempt at freeing her. They pushed with all of their might, and with the combined strength of three well-trained soldiers, they managed to free Saratoga. His two men stopped to breathe after successfully freeing Saratoga, but Snake hastily began to perform a field inspection on her condition... but that's when he noticed that she had her rigging equipped, and it was severely damaged. Regardless, Snake placed a nearby rock under Saratoga's head, and placed his index and middle finger on her carotid artery. Luckily, it was still pulsing at a steady rate. Quickly, he began to check her pulse on various other places; surprisingly, she was still in good shape, but she had numerous bruises and scrapes all over her skin.

"Do you feel pain anywhere?" Snake asked Saratoga, who raised her head off the uncomfortable rock.

"Uh, not any I can feel."

Snake immediately asked another question. "Then how about a fight or flight response?"

"That already kicked in when I found out I was buried under my plane. Now that it's worn off, I still don't feel any pain." She responded with equal parts seriousness and cheerfulness... the latter of which was a surprisingly good balm for Snake's soul right about now. Snake reached out a hand to Saratoga, pulling her up onto her knees. After she got her footing, he spoke again. "Where are the other girls?"

"How should I know? I was trapped under debris, _remember?_"

Abruptly, Fire Lizard spoke up. "Don't talk back. He's asking because anything we can know will help us track your comrades down." he said with deadpan seriousness.

Saratoga was about to say something, but an abrupt flash blinded the four for a second. Snake immediately tensed up, unholstering his _Wu S. Pistol_. However, when he raised it in preparation to subdue whatever enemy had tossed a flashbang at them, he saw Gridley with her camera pointed at him.

"Gotcha! The papers are gonna _LOVE _the shots I've gotten today!"

Snake slowly lowered his pistol, and did not hesitate to let out an irritated groan at the unintentional scare. Shaken Ape's voice spoke from behind Snake, seemingly to Gridley. "You might like that thing, but to us that's pretty damn dangerous. Do us all a favor and keep that thing _off_, will you?"

Gridley rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine. One of your guys already told me off, anyways."

"One of our guys?" Snake repeated. As if his remark was a cue, he heard the sound of bushes rustling behind Gridley and quickly raised his pistol again to face whatever threat was trying to ambush him. To his surprise, Resting Crow, Charles Ausburne and Maury emerged from the bushes. They were also badly injured, and part of Crow's balaclava was damaged, revealing part of his face. Immediately, Snake holstered his pistol and cleared his throat.

"Status report?" he asked.

Resting Crow also cleared his throat, and responded with diligence. "No casualties, all accounted for. Some wounded, but still combat effective."

"Good. We're pretty damn lucky to have survived that crash thanks to those trees." Snake remarked, turning around and pointing at the trees. Resting Crow made a whistle of astonishment, and Snake turned back to face the group. "Saratoga, can you still use your weapons?"

Saratoga looked up at the sky. "I can try." she responded simply. After her reply, she raised her flag up with both hands and began waving it around... and just stood there in anticipation.

.

..

...

"Huh? Why isn't it working?"

"Why's _what_ not working?" Fire Lizard asked, dumbfounded.

"Normally when I do this, I summon a bunch of planes. But I guess since my runway is all messed up from the crash, I can't summon them like I normally can!"

"What!? That is quite bad!" Charles Ausburne remarked. "Without air support, we might be in deep trouble!"

Snake raised his voice in a commanding fashion. "All of you, calm down. Screw your heads on a little tighter, and think about the situation we're in before you start thinking about what you _can't_ do. We're in a forest, and we just crashed our plane. We're lucky to even be alive... any of you who can still use a gun - or rigging - is going to be more combat effective than a person who panics."

Silence settled upon the group for a good number of seconds, with nothing but the sound of the bombs going off in the distance and fighter planes flying above. Snake's words seemed to hit hard for them, as they all collectively averted their gazes from each other in a melancholic fashion. The one to break the silence was, surprisingly, Saratoga.

"Yeah... Snake's right. My planes might not work, but my artillery can!"

"Good. Everyone saddle up, we're Oscar Mike." Snake announced to the group. The soldiers _and_ the shipgirls responded with _'Yes, sir!'_ as they all departed from the wrecked plane.

.

..

...

_-10 Minutes Later-_

Eventually, the group had made their way from the wreckage and reached a cliff, overlooking a sight that was both impressive and disheartening at the same time - enormous pillars of black smoke and fire coming from Pearl Harbor, along with the sight of many fighter planes continuing to fuel the destruction by bombing the base. Hundreds of men were evacuating to safer grounds, and a few were seen carrying the injured and deceased over their shoulders and in stretcher beds. On the water, _many_ shipgirls were battling each other and the smell of gunpowder completely drowned out the smell of foliage and gasoline. Lifeboats full of men slowly made their way back to the shore, with a few unlucky boats getting caught in the crosshairs or bombarded by fighter planes in the surrounding waters. Ship debris and dead bodies were floating nearby in the sea. To say it was sad was an understatement... _but to actually see it in person was __soul-crushing_.

Everyone fell silent at the scene. Saratoga, Gridely and Maury watched with horror in their eyes of the carnage in Pearl Harbor. Charles Ausburne took off her hat to mourn the loss of all the men who lost their lives. After a few moments of silence, Lizard spoke up

"Boss..."

The voice of Fire Lizard brought Snake back to reality. He turned around to see his soldier holding a UN-ARC, and looking straight at him. "I know you're used to this kinda thing and all, but just remember; we can still save some of those people."

"Yeah... good reminder." Snake remarked. "Listen up, everyone: forget the official orders from your commander, because the situation is hopeless. Our new mission is to save anyone we can. Do not engage enemies unless necessary, and save anyone you can." With those words, he grabbed the ALM-48 he had slung around his torso, and finally cocked the loaded box-magazine since he didn't have the chance to earlier. They all responded _'Yes, sir!'_ and the group started gradually making their way down the island. Rushing past the hundreds of soldiers and military personnel, none of them seemed to take notice of Snake and his men despite bumping into multiple people on their way to the edge of the shore. The soldiers and shipgirls alike had to hurdle over rocks and cliffs, clear fallen trees and check for sounds repeatedly until they arrived at the end of the cliff where they spotted a battle in the surrounding waters. A squad of shipgirls were firing upon a group of regular ships that were surrounding a squad of hostile shipgirls. Once the hostile shipgirls came into view, Snake and his soldiers immediately took cover. However, the shipgirls in his squad didn't even bother to conceal themselves.

"Huh? What are you guys do-" Charles Ausburne attempted to question them, but she was forcibly yanked behind a rock, and interrupted by Resting Crow.

"_Shh! Keep it down, or we'll get spotted!"_ he quietly whispered to her. Sensing the urgency from his voice, the other shipgirls cautiously and hastily did the same. Charles Ausburne peeked at the side to watch the friendly squad of shipgirls finish off the remaining hostile ships attacking them. Snake looked at Resting Crow, and nodded at him. At Snake's signal, Crow loaded a magazine into his non-lethal UN-ARC and took aim at one of the enemy girls who were retreating. Fire Lizard and Shaken Ape did the same, both taking aim at separate targets. Snake tracked their movement for a few seconds, all the ambient sound was entirely drowned out in the Diamond Dog's collectively calm focus.

.

..

...

"Drop 'em." Snake ordered.

Without any delay at all, the three soldiers pulled the trigger at the same time. Combined quiet gunfire of three suppressed weapons made a loud high pitched squeal sound as multiple rounds flew towards the hostile shipgirl squad as they dropped one by one, neutralized by the non-lethal rounds. The sudden drop of the enemy shipgirls made the friendly shipgirls flinched in surprise. Charles looked _especially_ unnerved by what they did... however, she seemed to internalize whatever issue she had. Snake performed a brief survey of the area before giving his group the all-clear to emerge from cover. Cautiously, the group continued through the island.

They quickly moved across the shore, while rushing past more soldiers fleeing from their ships. Suddenly, the sound of a dive bomber flying overhead caused Snake to look overhead. He looked up, and saw an object falling towards them... _OH NO...!_

🎵MGS4 - REX vs RAY Theme🎵

"_**INCOMIIIINNNGG~!" **_

Snake yelled at the top of his lungs, and everyone in the area around began sprinting for cover while Snake and his squad rushed for safety. While sprinting to cover, Snake bumped into another soldier, causing him to stumble and fall on his back. Snake looked up and saw the bombs had nearly hit the ground. Quickly bracing for the impact, he rolled over onto his back and covered his head, while the few men nearby dropped low to the ground.

_**BANG!  
BANG!  
BANG!  
**_

The explosions from the bombs caused an inaudible ring in his ears. The immense shockwave hit him like a truck, and momentarily left him shellshocked. Now covered in sand and dirt, He pushed himself up, disorientated from the blast. He blurrily watched as a couple men got up and continued to make their way away from shore. Once his vision had cleared up, he took notice of the fact that a few men were _decapitated _by the explosions. Luckily, the man he had bumped into had narrowly avoided that fate himself - the shrapnel had embedded itself _centimeters_ above his head. The explosions also destroyed a nearby building that was now set on fire. Snake took a moment to help a few men nearby get up, and paid respects to a man who lost his life in mere milliseconds. He quickly switched to looking around for his men and the girls, looking in every direction several times. He spotted Saratoga who was waving her flag nearby a destroyed building. Snake got back up on his feet and rushed over to her to group with his squad.

"Oh, thank goodness you're still alive! You really had us worried!" Said Maury who was still breathing hard from seeing Snake cheat death.

Charles Ausburne, angered at the sight of seeing more men being claimed by the chaos, looked up at the sky as small anti air guns materialized on her rigging. She bawled her hands in a fist as a wave of bullets fired from the small guns, most of the shots missing with a few hitting some planes flying high above.

"_Grrr…._ _**STUPID PLANES!"**_ Saratoga yelled as she swung her flagpole hard at a fighter plane nearby. A bright orange ball shot out of her pole at a high speed towards the plane. Amazingly, it made impact with the plane and suddenly exploded in a ball of fire as wreckage came crashing down into the forest foliage nearby.

"Good shot, Saratoga." Snake remarked. "However, because you took out one of them, our position is now compromised. We must move now before more come by and glasses our position."

Saratoga smiled brightly. "Ehehe~ Thank you!" she said in a positive way that once again gave Snake a nice cleaning for his sanity.

He moved his head to the right, facing his men. "We need to move fast. That building will claim the rest of the nature in just a few minutes. Anyone friendly who you see laying in the ground, pick them up and take them with you until we've reached a safe position where we could radio for medical help."

"OH! In that case, I'd better go radio to another fellow aircraft carrier if they could lend us a plane~," Saratoga quickly followed up as she extended the antenna on the mainmast of her pole and held it to her head.

.

..

…

"Okay! Unfortunately, there is no other aircraft carriers stationed here, so I managed to convenience one of the big battleships if we could borrow her seaplane!~"

"Who did you convince?" Resting Crow asked.

"Pennsylvania!~" Saratoga said with great confidence.

"Alright, if we want a ride back to the base, let's keep moving." Snake said urgently.

The joint-faction group all saluted him in response. They quickly exited the area, and indeed did encounter a few unconscious military personnel in the grass. Fire Lizard, Shaken Ape and Resting Crow each picked up and carried a person, while Maury and Charles dragged another crudely along the grass. Eventually, they reached another patrol next to a broken down shed. Putting down the friendlies, Resting Crow carefully opted to scout the area. On lower ground under some trees, he spotted a couple hostile shipgirls who seemed like they had just retreated after a successful battle. Once again, the Diamond Dogs took cover behind trees and in bushes. Like a hivemind, the three soldiers along with Snake took aim with their weapons. From behind, Snake could hear Charles grunt in opposition, but she again decided to say nothing.

.

..

...

"Fire." Snake whispered. The combined sound of three rifles _and_ an LMG, all silenced, made a high pitched sound that was louder than an unsuppressed gunshot. Snake clicked his tongue in irritation as he watched the bodies fall unconscious onto the grass and foliage. Looking around for other enemies, he immediately grabbed the attention of his group.

"We might risk getting ourselves found if we keep knocking them out." Snake announced. "Men, take off your suppresssors. Stealth is impossible in this situation."

"Boss? Are you _sure _that's a good idea?" Resting Crow questioned Snake. "You aren't the kind of person to make that call."

Snake sighed. "Your right; it's a bit abnormal for me to do this, but we're surrounded by an unknown amount of hostiles and we are outnumbered in firepower and forces. Coordination tactics like that are a liability, and alternating turns is impractical. We've got no choice but to go loud."

Fire Lizard lowered his rifle, placing a hand on his weapon's suppressor. Fire Lizard grunted from the intense heat from the suppressor as he slowly detached it. "_*Ack*_... Not sure if I really agree with you on this being a good idea, but we trust you. I hope you didn't doom us, though."

"We don't have time to think about the what-if's." Snake replied objectively. "We only have time to think about what will keep us alive, and what will save our allies who _are_ still alive."

Snake emerged from the foliage after saying that, his group following suit instinctively. As they continued onwards through the mass destruction, Snake thought to himself - _'If only we could have stopped this in the first place...'_

.

..

...

_-Another 10 Minutes Later-_

"Stop."

Snake ordered the group to stop again. They had successfully reached the beach area of the island, but the attacks on Pearl Harbor were still continuing without mercy. Several friendly shipgirls were evacuating the area, and there was heartbreaking destruction along the sea as more men abandoned their ships and were escaping to land in lifeboats. Immediately on the beach, Snake noticed a man crawling with his arms. Wasting no time, Snake bolted straight towards the man while making sure he wasn't sprinting to his death. Once he had reached the man, Snake immediately grabbed both his arms, bringing him up to his legs and immediately asking him a question.

"Can you stand?" he asked hastily.

"...Yeah..." the man's strained voice answered.

Snake furrowed his brow. "Are your legs damaged? Your arms?"

"Yeah, but I can still walk." the man said, coughing.

"Can you use a gun?" Snake asked another question.

The man struggled to stand on his own. "If you can give me one, then yeah."

Snake immediately grabbed his non-lethal Wu Pistol, giving it to the man. "This is a non-lethal weapon. I want you to watch our backs,_ literally."_ The man looked at the pistol with confusion, before giving Snake a weird look.

"It's a rather strange firearm, sir." He said while further inspecting it.

"That's the least of our concerns. You see anyone not friendly, shoot them in the head." Said snake while quickly checking his ALM-48 LMG's ammo count.

"Roger." The soldier replied loyally.

Snake let go of the man. He was wobbling on his feet, but managed to keep himself up. Fire Lizard and Shaken Ape both applied some bandages to the man, and the group reorganized to account for a faux rear guard. The joint-faction group continued briskly forward along the beach, continuing to rescue more soldiers. More and more soldiers were brought back up to speed, and one Snake ordered them all to search for the fallen and to bring them to the back of the island, with the exception of the man he gave his pistol to. Their rescue duties done, as they weren't able to find any more soldiers to rescue, the group turned their attention to the battle out at sea - several ships and shipgirls were battling while fighter planes flew above, dropping bombs on them. Some were small and some enormous.

But among one particular ship stood out that _immediately_ caught Snake's eye. One that was receiving the worst of the planes' collective wrath.

**The USS Arizona.**

🎵Call of Duty MW2 - Shepard's Death🎵

Immediately, Snake rushed to the sea, and the group soon followed after. A few hostile shipgirls noticed them, and Charles and her squad providing cover fire for the Diamond Dogs. Snake had ordered the one man he gave his pistol to to remain at shore, as he was in no condition to swim. His men were quick to catch up to him, and they all seemed to have the exact same thought as Snake. _'If these ships had girls controlling them, then wouldn't that mean that he could technically _help_**save**__ Arizona?'_ This thought fueled Snake, and he furiously swam across the water.

-Another Perspective-

At that moment, Snake felt time slow down. All he could think of was one thing - that if he could save the USS Arizona, he could prevent this world's America from being dealt a fatal blow to their morale. His men wanted to ask questions, but deep down they knew what Snake was thinking...

...And they agreed all the same.

_*Splash*_

"WAIT!" Gridley screamed to Snake and his men, "WHERE ARE YOU ALL GOING!? AREN'T WE GONNA WAIT FOR THE PLANE TO ARRIVE!?"

Snake and his men ignored her question as they continued to rush forward off the shore and into the water.

"WHAT ARE THEY DOING!? THE PLANE IS GONNA SHOW UP HERE IN A FEW MINUTES!" Saratoga asked as she dumbfoundedly watched Snake and his men began swimming away from shore.

Charles Ausburne looked off in the distance and noticed a large battleship that was under heavy fire.

Her eyes widened, "_They are going after Arizona!_" Charles yelled.

"ARIZONA!? OH NO! Charles quick, we gotta go after them! NOW!"

Without responding back, Charles Ausburne sprinted off the shore and into the water, sailing after Snake and his men.

"Gridley, Sara, Stay on the shore, I'm going after them too!"

Maury got into a 4-point stance. She wiped the sweat off her forehead, the next second she was sprinting after Charles at full speed. When she reached the water, she noticed a long rope wash to shore warped around a piece of scrap metal. Stopping in her tracks, she grabbed one end of the rope

'_This could be useful.' _She thought as she continued her mad dash towards the USS Arizona, with the long rope dangling behind her.

_*Splash*_

Wordless and dutifully, the majestic group of Diamond Dogs swam across the water, not letting fatigue or foe stop their rescue efforts. The men at Snake's side couldn't find an opening to be able to catch up to Snake, but his position was so heavily compromised that they opted not to risk their lives, even if it was for the esteemed Venom Snake. Together, they fell back towards the shore, guilty that they decided to leave their boss open. However, to their great surprise, a seaplane was on approach to the beach. They furiously flagged it down.

_*Splash*_

Meanwhile, back at Snake's side, he was being covered by Charles Ausburne and Maury who had just caught up. With the help of the allied shipgirls in the area, they were able to eventually reach the USS Arizona, which was heavily damaged but yet still afloat. Next to it, was a girl who was taking **heavy** fire by many enemy shipgirls and fighter planes. Charles's squad had managed to repel the enemy shipgirls against the overwhelming odds. However, fighter planes still held domination in the sky, so this area was by no means captured. The planes one-by-one mercilessly strafed the ship, and any enemies they could lay their crosshairs on. Snake felt more and more hopeless as he swam closer and closer to the girl.

_*Splash*_

But suddenly, the enemy shipgirls dispersed. Immediately after they did, the unknown girl collapsed onto the water as the ship made an _extremely_ loud metallic groan, and began to capsize. Several fighter planes also strafed the ship as well for extra measure, which gave Snake the scare of his life. However, instead of his goal of saving the ship somehow - which was failed before he could even start - he opted to save the girl _instead_. He may have failed to protect the USS Arizona, but he could at least save this mystery girl who looked like she was trying to defend the ship. He swam under her, and moved to secure her. Together with his Charles and her squad of shipgirls, Snake successfully fought back to shore with the unknown girl...

_...Right as another seaplane landed on the beach._

_-Chapter 4: Act 3-_

-Snake's Perspective-

🎵Warframe - Rapid Adaptation🎵

"**WATCH OUT, ENEMY FIGHTERS!"**

The sound of a squadron of enemy fighter planes strafing them from above really cemented into Snake's mind how they were really living through _history_. Now carrying a wounded shipgirl, they continued to struggle to the shore. Snake and his Diamond Dogs were lucky to have friendly shipgirls covering them, because _every single enemy had turned their attention to the group__._ Fighters upon bombers upon shipgirls were relentlessly assaulting their position, and Snake was secretly praying to whatever lord above that he would be able to successfully make it to shore. He didn't have time to look back, or even to his side. For his only objective at this point was to save the girl on his back. He didn't consciously realize, but after he had grabbed this girl, all the enemies redirected their attention to him... even though they were previously firing at _USS Arizona_.

He had few seconds to ponder this thought, because his enemies sure weren't giving him any breathing room at all. Countless bullets flew by them, and he was very much equal parts thankful and confused that they haven't hit him or the mystery girl yet.

*Splash*  
*Splash*  
*Splash*

Snake heard many loud splashes next to him, immediately followed by the sound of a plane flying overhead.

.

..

...

'_Motherfu-'_

_**BOOM**_!

Snake didn't even have the chance to finish his thought before an explosion knocked him clean out of the water, him losing his grip on the mystery girl. His life flashed before his eyes, including his previous life before taking on the role of Venom Snake. He remembered the day he first joined Militaires Sans Frontière at the behest of his friend, Pequod. Or rather, the Pequod _at the time._ Then he remembered the day Big Boss personally took an interest in his medical skills. And finally, the day before everything went to shit.

* * *

"_Hey, -."_

_The sound of someone's voice grabbed his attention. He looked to his right to see a certain soldier - one who had achieved the status of Major in MSF._

"_Good afternoon, sir." - bowed to Sageful Advisor, the oldest man in MSF at age 55._

"_You look like you've been hit with a star." Sageful Advisor commented. - simply said nothing in response._

"_Sorry sir, just a bit excited to hear what Big Boss wanted to personally see me for."_

_Sageful Advisor snickered in a way only a wise person would. "Don't get too excited, kid. He's probably gonna tell you off or something."_

"_Hey, don't crush my spirit please. Let me dream at least a little bit."_

"_Heh..." Sageful Advisor smirked. "Alright. I'll let you have your fun. Just remember - calmness is what keeps you alive. Big Boss probably thinks that you haven't learned that lesson yet, so he's probably gonna teach you that."_

* * *

.

..

...

That advice he gave him... _'Calmness is what keeps you alive.' _Snake reminisced on that thought while he was currently experiencing hyperdilation. Yet that advice from nearly two decades ago was something that he desperately wished could come true. At this prayer to whatever deity was listening, time _immediately_ resumed to it's normal speed, and Snake's senses started to work again all at once. And he could see himself falling towards the water. Bracing himself to either land in the water or die, he closed his eyes.

*splash*

Underwater, Snake quickly opened his eyes. Above, he could see the faint silhouette of Charles and Maury stumbling while firing their cannons, with the unknown female body that he had attempted to save floating behind them. A group of friendly shipgirls quickly circled around the duo, and quickly allowed the two to take a breather. Maury, with a rope hanging from her shoulder warped it around the unconscious girl before tying the other end around her waist. Looking to the sky, he watched helplessly as a group of dive bombers darted directly towards him and the girls around him, Snake's vision suddenly faded to black.

'_So this is how it ends, huh... killed in action while involved in an historic battle.' _Snake soberly thought to himself. At that moment, he felt calm. Calm in the sense that he would soon meet his end.

...But then he abruptly felt himself getting pulled up through the water.

*Splash*

*Splash*  
*Spash*  
*Splash*

_**BOOM! BOOM!**_

Snake then opened his eyes. He was being pulled above water away from the action, and he saw that it was Charles and Maury who both were surrounded by a blue aura, dragging him above water and moving to shore at a high rate of speed. Confused, he quickly looked around to see if they were risking their lives... but they weren't. The few friendly shipgirls that had arrived provided covering fire. However, they seemed to be taking heavy fire, and it appeared they couldn't keep up the role of being a diversion for much longer. Wasting no time, he quickly signaled a 'thank you' to his two benefactors via a smirk. Now at a distance from the carnage and with his returning strength, Snake then pulled the girl in closer to untie her from Maury and began swimming furiously the rest of the way with all of his might. Thanks to his mad dash, and the assistance of Charles and Maury, he managed to reach the shore with incredible time and saw that the seaplane had already been started up. His men had already entered the fuselage and were also providing covering fire while Saratoga and Gridely were shooting their cannons at the circling fighter planes in the air.

Immediately after Snake touched down on shore, he heard one of the men shouting. _"GET IN BOSS, WE CAN'T KEEP THIS UP FOR MUCH LONGER!"_

As much as Snake wanted to enter the plane, he couldn't. He took a deep breath, and shouted back._ "WE CAN'T! THOSE PLANES HAVE US PINNED DOWN!_"

"""_WELL WE CAN AT LEAST __**TRY!**_""" All 3 of his men replied in unison.

So Snake gets to choose how he dies, is it? Either in the air attempting to flee, or by the hands of the enemy. Sighing with the same calmness from before, he opted to enter the plane with the girl. But as if fate itself had him sealed, he heard a plane fly over his right side... and the all too familiar feeling of dread filled his head again.

_**BOOM!**_

Yet another bomb exploded nearly right next to Snake, and shrapnel flew by all sides of him. He felt himself get jerked to the right hard enough to get knocked off his feet. He knew he was hit; falling down onto the sand, he immediately forced himself to stay conscious and looked to his right arm... and saw that his prosthetic arm had been completely ruined by a large metal shard. While still laying on the sand, he quickly inspected his legs and left arm as well, which had miraculously survived unscathed. And he couldn't feel pain in any of his other body parts, or see shrapnel in them. Even though a small piece might have impaled him, the adrenaline was keeping him combat effective.

"Boss, are you alright!?"

Snake looked up to see Shaken Ape kneeling over him. Snake grunted in response. "Yeah, but my hand is fucked."

"Damnit, those _bastards!_" Shaken Ape stood up and stomped his foot on the sand, nearly kicking some into Snake's face by the force of his foot. Suddenly, another plane flew overhead, but it didn't drop a payload. Shaken Ape quickly knelt knelt down again, outstretching an arm.

"**ON YOUR FEET BOSS,**_** WE ARE LEAVING**_**!"**

Snake grabbed Shaken Ape's Left arm, being pulled up fast enough to feel the blood rush to his head from the rapid ascension to his feet. But he had no time to feel funny, and they wasted no time to make a beeline for the plane, with Snake's slung LMG shaking clumsily and almost impeding his movement. Immediately after boarding, Snake noticed that Charles and her squad weren't following them.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Snake yelled. _"COME ON, WE'RE GETTING OUT OF HERE!"_

Charles looked back. _**"NO, YOU MUST LEAVE WITHOUT US!**__ YOU'VE MANAGED TO SUCCESSFULLY SAVE AN IMPORTANT MEMBER OF AZUR LANE! ME AND MY FELLOW KANSEN HAVE DECIDED TO PERFORM A LAST STAND SO THAT SHE CAN SAFELY MAKE IT BACK!__**"**_

**A Broken Arrow?**_That was insane!_ For the first time in years, Snake - no, _Ahab_ felt mixed emotions at what the girl was deciding to do. These shipgirls were unlike any of the soldiers he had. This wasn't to say that he _didn't_ cherish his men, because he did quite dearly... but something about these girls and their ability to maintain cheery personalities in the face of a desolate war that surrounds them gives Snake something he also hadn't felt in years: _**Hope**_**.**

Hope for a brighter future.

_"GRIDLEY, SARATOGA, TAKE THEM BACK TO HEADQUARTERS! WE'LL PROVIDE COVER, GO!"_

Unfortunately, he had no choice in the matter. The plane began to take off from the beach, and Snake instinctively yelled **"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~!"** as Saratoga and Gridley dragged him to the plane that was preparing to take off. He looked out of the window to give his assigned teammates one last look... and it filled him with dread to see them taking a last stand for his sake.

But what he wasn't expecting, was to see the planes that were taking passes at them get destroyed the next second. All of them were destroyed by a storm of bullets, and two planes that looked different from the rest flew over them. Were they friendly? Snake had absolutely no idea, but the truth was that they had just completely decimated their air support, and possibly had just covered their escape. From the side, he saw that the planes weren't going back for another pass... perhaps they _were_ friendly, and decided to give some brief air support before getting the hell out of there.

A bright flash went off in the opposite end of the passenger cabin. _"Wow, did you see that guys!? Those were P-40 Tomahawks! Our Guys!"_

The sound of cackling amongst his men and Gridley filled the cabin as fate had answered Snake's question.

But one thing's for sure. If Snake ever met them in person, _he owed them some wine._

.

..

...

_-Chapter 4: Act 4-_

🎵 _Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker - Love Deterrence (Acoustic) __**[OR]**__ Ennio Morricone - The Funeral🎵 _

_(Authors Note: We decided that two songs fitted this scene equally well. Both are linked in the official soundtrack playlist; take your pick.)_

_-8 hours later-_

"_**We have gathered here today to mourn the loss of the many people who perished by the hands of the people who we previously considered our allies."**_

The sombre voice of The Commander spoke through a from both Azur Lane and Diamond Dogs had gathered at the request of both The Commander and Snake, both noticeably serious and sad when they had made the announcement. The Commander continued.

"_**December 7th 1941, will be remembered as one of the darkest events in war. We lost many good men, but we're fortunate enough to not have lost any of our fellow KANSEN ships. I cannot express the gratitude in my heart that none of you here today, shipgirl and man alike, were there to witness the horrors that unfolded. However, we have lost more than just our men. We lost one of our strongest bases. We lost many ships, planes, and even resources. Yet despite all of this, one particular ship that had received heavy damage, survived thanks to the courageous efforts of a joint-force team of both Kansen of the Azur Lane alliance and human soldiers of the Diamond Dogs. We will now have a moment of silence for our fallen brethren."**_

Everyone present lowered their heads. Sombre music played over the speakers placed next to the stage. Only the sound of the music and the ocean waves could be heard. Some people were silently sobbing to themselves, others were wearing heavy expressions of many conflicted feelings - all of them negative.

_**.**_

_**..**_

_**...**_

Only once did the song end, did the people finally start talking again. The Commander, however, quickly resumed talking before the audience chatter could become loud.

"_**What the Sakura Empire did... it was **__**unforgivable.**__** We had previously lived in harmony, and peace. We did not treat each other as adversaries, but as common friends... But it seems that our hopes - my hopes were dashed in a single day. Our losses are devastating... but we will NOT take this loss lying down. As of today, I officially declare war on the Sakura Empire. To those who do not wish to participate in this war, you may leave without fear of retribution. I understand that some of you may not be ready for another war on a new front. But to those of you, old allies and new, who wish to bring the battle to our new enemies... I thank you for your selfless decision, and look forward to serving with you in our upcoming battles. Our battles... to end this war."**_

The audience rapidly broke out into deafening applause. The Diamond Dogs, however, opted to remain quiet. From the chair he sat in, Snake could see The Commander smiling slightly. Gradually, though, the applause settled down as they waited for The Commander's next words. Knowing it was time to speak, he stepped forward to the microphone.

"_**Thank you all for attending today's memorial ceremony. I encourage you all to spend the rest of the day amongst friends, to cherish those who had successfully survived the attack. And to those who lost someone dear to you... may you be comforted by those close to you. Finally, to the rest of you - we shall spend the next three days recovering from what has transpired today. I will not rest easy until those responsible are brought to justice for claiming the lives of those who we hold close to us, under the false pretense of an allied friendship. That is all for the ceremony... you are dismissed."**_

In gradual waves, everyone stood up from their seats and slowly walked off towards the dorms. The Diamond Dogs, however, gathered at the harbor next to a nearby ship that The Commander had specifically prepared for transport purposes. They slowly boarded the large ship, and Snake simply watched them do so in silence. A while later, once the last person had entered the ship, Snake took out his pack of phantom cigars - but because he wasn't able to "light" it, he instead pressed a button that initiated the chemical reactions instead.

🎵 Metal Gear Solid 1 - The Best Is Yet To Come 🎵

_-4 Hours Earlier-_

Snake sat down in a chair, and it creaked loudly in indignation. He was surrounded by several people, all leaders of their various countries. How he got into this situation was simple; The Commander has requested Snake's presence at a meeting he was attending, citing 'You will likely wish to be present. The matters we shall talk about considers what you yourself were involved in not 8 hours ago'. And thus, here he was, sitting at a large oval table seating over a dozen world leaders. But notably absent were leaders from the Sakura Empire and Ironblood... something both Snake and The Commander took note of.

"What do you mean it was the Sakura Empire!?" one of the leaders shouted loudly, but not fazing the others. It seemed as if they were used to his behavior. He wore a black-and-white suit, and had an emblem resembling what appeared to be Eagle Union. Snake had received the very briefest of explanations of the various nations in this world.

"We have not yet confirmed it, but we have evidence to support this claim." The Commander responded. "Various pieces of wreckage we were able to scavenge after the attack were traceable to designs seen on Sakura Empire ships." As he was saying this, Snake noted that he seemed to have difficulty remaining 100% composed. It didn't seem like he would explode, but he understood that The Commander would have some strong feelings about this.

However, the world leader representing Eagle Union wasn't as composed. "Then we should be attacking them right now! Why are we even having this talk if they could be plotting something in the background!?"

"You must remain calm." A voice responded. One of the leaders sitting across from him had spoken up - they wore a blue-and-gray suit, and wore a different emblem - one representing the Royal Navy. They spoke in a british accent. "It would be brash to mount an assault on them right after a heavily fortified base was razed in mere hours. I recommend we pool together our resources towards this investigation."

Another world leader replied, speaking in a heavy french accent. "Yeah. Clearly they must have some impressive firepower to have taken down Pearl Harbor like it was nothing. However, may I suggest an alternative?"

"You may." The Commander replied.

The french world leader, representing the Iris Orthodoxy, continued. "It is clear to me that the Sakura Empire must not be underestimated. In our time of unified peace, we have forgotten the possibility of a nation preparing for war without us noticing. Perhaps the Sakura Empire has grown so powerful, that we individually cannot match them with our respective militaries. So I suggest an idea, one that some of you may oppose: we unify together."

Silence fell upon the meeting. Every single leader there had a serious face, and all seemed to be considering the idea. For many seconds, an uncomfortable tension(?) lingered in the air, unnerving even Snake. He wasn't the kind of person to attend these kinds of meetings - Ocelot or Miller were usually ones delegated to that kind of thing, but he did attend some Diamond Dogs meetings once in a while... such as the one regarding the second quarantine incident. The few meetings he had attended however... were times when he got frighteningly serious.

And so, Snake spoke up for the first time during the meeting.

"I'm not a world leader, and I was just dragged here because I was involved. But I'm just gonna throw in my two cents: It'd be smarter to work together, than alone."

The Eagle Union world leader turned his head towards Snake, an audible cracking sound resounding loudly in the room. "Well, how do you suppose we do this?"

Snake sighed, but quiet enough to not let others notice. "This "Azur Lane" of yours... there's ships from all over the world combined on that base. You could unify the same way your shipgirls had on that base. And using all your resources, you could continue to improve these ships and the equipment they use."

Once again, silence fell upon the meeting room. However, it was short lived, as The Commander quickly spoke up once more. "I agree with Snake. The Kansen within my employment all have performed superbly. I also think it would be wise if we all unified together and combined our efforts to combat the stronger Sakura Empire. All in favor of the idea, I ask you raise your hand."

There was visible hesitation in most of the leaders, but one-by-one they all raised their hands. **A unanimous vote.**

"Well, I think we have our answer." The Commander said proudly. "Under the combined banner of Azur Lane, we shall combat the Sakura Empire and restore peace to our world."

Applause filled the room, all of the world leaders clapping in various intensities. But what Snake wondered is if he was included in that vote...

-Present Time-

After everyone had dispersed and the various equipment was moved away, Snake stood at the harbor of the Azur Lane base, looking out at the setting sun. His Phantom Cigar had performed it's job - it was time to find out the answer to that himself. Switching off the cigar and putting it back into its container for reuse, although having to make use of the ground thanks to his prosthetic arm being broken. he turned around and made his way back to the main building. The cold winter breeze glazed his skin, and as Snake was walking towards the buildings, he noted that all of the shipgirls he had passed had solemn looks on their faces. The overall mood of the base had been dampened by the recent events... no surprise there. But unlike the regular soldiers he had, it seemed like these shipgirls had a different demeanor altogether... like there was a bright side to war. But Snake immediately dismissed that thought - _war is true hell_, the real tragedy of it is that it uses man's best to do man's worst.

He used to offer his and his men's services to the highest bidder... with morals of course. Yet he has been in several incidents... Paz's takeover of the Carribean Mother Base, him waking up from his coma and being introduced to Diamond Dogs, and the various little incidents in Afghanistan and Africa, almost always being linked to Cipher - no, _Skull Face's_ wrath. Snake has never known what peace truly is, and he doubted he would get the chance to see the end of it.

But yet, the everyday moods of the girls weren't the same as his or his men. They were all seemingly unbothered by the harsh realities of war, like they were either oblivious to the concept or simply didn't let it affect them. Snake combed his brain for any potential answers to this strange observation, but all of them didn't seem to apply. But before he could continue, he had half-consciously passed through the gates to the building and had already entered. He was about to make his way up the stairs, but a girl was already walking down them - Belfast. He let her pass by, saying hello with a mere wave, to which she performed a silent curtsy and continued on her way. Ascending the stairs, Snake's footsteps loudly echoed through the hallways. The usual banter of the dorms had all but ceased, and it sent a chill down Snake's spine. It was one thing to see his soldiers in low morale, but these girls? It was almost alien... _sad_, even. This thought in mind, Snake had reached The Commander's office. Z23 was stationed there as usual.

"Is The Commander in?" Snake asked. Z23 looked up.

"Yes. He has been oddly focused since that assembly. I am concerned about his approach... he hasn't even eaten since lunch."

"I see." Snake remarked. "I'd like to talk to him... about something important. Can I enter?"

"Yes. The Commander has given you explicit permission to seek him whenever you'd like." Z23 replied. These words made Snake feel something that was exceedingly rare for him... warmth in his soul. He had few friends, limited to mainly Miller, Ocelot and an old soldier that didn't seem to survive the world transition. So it was rare for him to be able to make new ones, considering his overall approach to life. Snake smiled as he knocked on the door to The Commander's office, and opened it right after with no hesitation. Z23 was right - there were pieces of paper all throughout the office, not just on his desk. It was oddly familiar, reminding him of how Miller was at his worst during his obsession with Cipher. The Commander was so zoned in, that he didn't seem to even notice Snake's presence.

"Commander." Snake said loudly. That seemed to finally break him out of his trance, making him look up from his desk.

🎵Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - Mother Base Theme🎵

"Ah, Snak- I mean, _Ahab_. I was not expecting visitors for the rest of today." he replied, but in a cold tone of voice. Something that concerned Snake.

"Yeah. I would have left you alone, but I have something important to talk about."

"Something important?" The Commander repeated a part of Snake's sentence.

"Yes." Snake replied, now in a serious tone of voice. He walked over to The Commander's desk, taking a chair and sitting across from him. He continued. "That meeting we had earlier today, about the nations merging into Azur Lane... was I included in that?"

The Commander shook his head. "It wasn't intended that you join us. Why do you ask?"

Snake furrowed his brow. "Because... the world I came from experienced this exact event, over 40 years ago."

The Commander's pupils dilated. "What...?" he said in utter disbelief, as if his entire world was just shattered.

"You might not believe me, but it's true. That Pearl Harbor attack was what got Eagle Union - The United States of America in my world, into the war. This happened when I was just a kid... and because of that, I know you will need help to take down the Sakura Empire, Imperial Japan as called in my world."

The Commander sat there in complete silence for a moment, a look of utter dread on his face. A dozen seconds later, he finally spoke.

"_...You're from the future...?"_

"No." Snake answered flatly. "This world is a lot more advanced than mine already. The war that has just begun here, happened over 40 years ago in my world. But the tech I see here is more advanced than the tech in my world, but not in all areas. If you want to defeat the Sakura Empire, you'll need better tech... and some good men to use it."

"Are you suggesting...?"

"Yes." Snake cut him off. "I'd like to join forces with 'Azur Lane'."

Once again, The Commander fell silent again. But this time, he seemed completely lost in thought. Only after nearly half a minute had passed, did he speak again.

"What can you offer to our alliance?" he asked.

Snake paused for a few seconds. "I can't offer to merge with your alliance. I've got too much to lose by doing so. But what I can do is ally myself to Azur Lane, but privately. Me and my private army are about stealth and non-lethality, so I don't want me and my men to be in the history books if I can help it."

"Non-lethality, you say...?" The Commander answered in a deeper voice then usual, seemingly still lost in thought. He moved his head out the window, which overlooked another dock on the island.

.

..

...

"Very well. I'd like to enlist the help of Diamond Dogs as a private 'contractor' of Azur Lane. That will be the official term for your employment. But secretly, you will be as much of a core member as the others. Therefore..."

The Commander paused suspensefully.

"...I'd like to rename Azur Lane to **Diamond Union.**"

Diamond Union. A name that incorporates the Diamond part of Diamond Dogs, with a representation of the merging of allies. Something about the name caught Snake's interest in a way he hadn't expected. He had just said that he wanted to remain on the down low, but this... well, Snake _liked _it.

"I approve." Snake said after several moments of consideration. "But under the following terms; my faction is kept unmarked we can help it, we are not to be talked about outside of this base or Mother Base, and I will attend those meetings as an 'advisor'."

"Very well, I can agree with these terms." The Commander said with a smile on his face.

The Commander outstretched his hand. But he then noticed that Snake's prosthetic arm was removed. "What happened to your arm?"

"It was ruined while I was exfiltrating Pearl Harbor." Snake replied. "And as of right now, I have no idea who to go to in order to get it repaired."

The Commander, arm still outstretched, pondered Snake's words. "Ah, I see... In that case, one of our shipgirls on this island will be able to help you. However, she is notorious for being very business savvy... to the point that some of our staff call her _greedy._ I will put in a good word for you this time, but I cannot help you in the future with that."

"Just so I know, what currency does she use?" Snake asked.

"Shiny red crystals we refer to as 'Gems.'" The Commander replied. "They are similar to Diamonds, but they have tangible properties that make them useful to someone like the shipgirl I am referring to. They are known to be minable from Micronesian islands, and thankfully only we are aware of its properties... for now. It may not be long before our enemies soon discover Gems and their usefulness."

"So I've got to also worry about mining... not an issue." Snake remarked. Using his left arm, he also took The Commander's hand and shook it, formally establishing the name change and enlistment of his services. They let go of their hands. However, before they continued, The Commander seemed to have an idea flash into his head. He extended an index finger.

"Wait."

Before Snake could say anything, The Commander reached under his desk, grabbing a bottle of wine. The fancy stuff, eh...?

"This is... not exactly a _celebration _since a tragedy happened today, so let us call it an 'establishment of a contract'."

The Commander grabbed 2 glasses, pouring the wine into each of them. He carefully slid over Snake's glass. Snake clumsily grabbed the glass with his left hand, being somewhat tired. Regardless, he took a sip from it without hesitation.

And so, ended one of the most historic days in history... but _relived _by Snake himself.


End file.
